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RED ROCK, Texas — Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative customers can head into a cold Friday night knowing all power lines are restored.
This week's winter storm knocked out power for more than 1,500 customers serviced by the cooperative.
The first power outage happened around 9 p.m. Tuesday. It was restored by 10:15 p.m.
Then, more people lost power a few hours later. Bluebonnet issued alerts to everyone affected.
Messages showed in part, “Additional Crews are en route. We will continue working through the night until your power is restored.”
A spokesman for the cooperative told the KVUE Defenders the reason for the outage was a combination of the extreme cold temperatures and heavy electrical demand.
“Because of the heavy load, mainly caused by electric heaters in homes, the primary power lines heated up, expanded, and sagged into the neutral wire below the center phase. When the primary wire came into contact with the neutral wire, it caused faults, which caused the outages,” Bluebonnet Electric Cooperate spokesman Will Holford said.
Crews worked in sections energizing one part of the line at a time, Holford said. Messages to customers show the incremental work that was done to prevent damage to the system.
“To resolve the line-sag issue, we had more than 25 crews with about 150 experienced line workers lower the neutral wire along the entire seven-mile electric distribution feeder," Holford said. "That was completed and power was fully restored by 3 p.m. Wednesday."
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