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Show Substation switch blows, leaves valley without electricity A voltage regulator switch at the Utah Power and Light's Vernal substation blew up Saturday about 9 am., and left most of the Ashley Valley without electricity for 5 to 8 hours. Power in the Naples area was not restored until about 5 p.m. There are two transformers at the Vernal substation, each with two circuits cir-cuits and the four feed the Vernal area, with the exception of Maeser. Each of the four circuits has a voltage regulator, that increases and decreases voltage as the demand fluctuates during dur-ing the course of a day. Each of the voltage regulators has a bypass witch, and when the switch is closed electricity runs through the regulator. When the switch is open the electricity electrici-ty bypasses the regulator. It was this switch that blew up. The cause of the problem is unkown . Lightning, birds, and even snakes have been known to cause the same problem in other substations. This substation is 30 years old and has never experienced the problem before. There was no lightning Saturday morning, mor-ning, and no remains of a bird were found, although that possibility cannot be ruled out, since the heat was so intense in-tense it actually welded pieces of steel together. When the problem occurred, the air in the area became ionized and became a conductor of electricity. The electricity was going to the ground . everywhere. At least for a few seconds a large ball of electrical fire surrounded surround-ed the regulators and switches. Each one of the circuits carries 12,500 volts. Very shortly after the initial explosion explo-sion occurred, the substation shut 'itself down and the valley was without electricity. Three of the switches were totally destroyed and there was no way to connect to the other circuit. Since this problem had not happened in 30 years, there were no new switches swit-ches available to replace the damaged damag-ed ones. New switches were ordered trom Salt Lake City, and a crew was assembled to bring them out and install in-stall them. In the meantime, local UP&L officials of-ficials decided the new switches and installation crew would take too long to get here, so they found old switches, upgraded them as well as they could and installed them. This allowed them to restore power to the valley. Tuesday morning a crew from American Fork arrived in Vernal to convert the old switches to the new switches which had arrived late Saturday Satur-day afternoon. Power was able to be rerouted Tuesday and no one was out of power during the time the switches were replaced. The new switches are technologically better than the old ones and the problem which happened happen-ed Saturday can't happen with the new switches. Only half of the substation now has the new switches. Local UP&L manager Bob Thompson said switches for the other half of the substation will certainly be a budget item, although they may not be replaced for a year. Thompson said the incident Saturday was unfortunate, but under the circumstances, he is pleased with the way the UP&L employees handled the situation. It took some ingenuity and a concerted effort to be able to restore power as quickly as they were able to. I ; ' - - - v 1 4 UTAH POWER & LIGHT crews work Tuesday Tues-day to replace voltage regulator switches which blew out Saturday, leaving the Ashley Valley without electricity. There is no explanation why the switch blew, but officials say the same problem cannot happen hap-pen with the new switches. |