A power outage on July 30 affected many customers across northern and southern areas of Canby. It even took down Canby Utility’s office phone systems and computers. During this outage, a transfer switch to our backup generator also failed despite having recently serviced the equipment. Thankfully, our expert electric crew identified the problem and restored power as quickly as possible.
What caused this significant, widespread outage? A bird. Yes, a bird. Despite having animal guards to keep birds and other animals out of substation equipment, a bird managed to slip through the guards and make contact with incoming lines at our Westcott substation.
To customers, every outage presents the same inconvenience and trouble, but outages result from many different sources. On May 16, we experienced a significant outage affecting 5,500 customers. In that event, it was Portland General Electric’s transmission system that experienced a momentary power interruption. Transmission interruptions like this have happened three times this year. Unfortunately, power interruptions on transmission lines are out of our control and are not caused by Canby Utility equipment.
Canby Utility strives to provide reliable power by proactively trimming trees and replacing old equipment, but we cannot prevent all outages from happening. Please know that when there is an outage, we begin troubleshooting and the process to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
When there is an outage, watch our website for updates about outage impacts, causes, and estimated restoration time.