By Sentinel Staff
Electricity flickered several times in downtown Sitka as city crews worked to restore power to Galankin Island Tuesday evening, a city electric department official said today.
When crews turned Galankin’s power back on, the sudden surge caused a momentary flicker in the rest of town, city meter reader Kija Elstad said in an interview.
“Whenever you turn the power back on to something else it adds a heavy load to the grid, and it will cause a power flicker, especially that time of day too,” she said.
Elstad added that since the work occurred in the evening, it coincided with high electrical use by Sitka residents.
“In the evenings when they are looking at stuff like that there are certain times of day when everyone is home… Those are peak hours,” she said.
She noted that the efforts to restore regular power to outlying islands went well, but large swing tides and rough weather complicated efforts.
“We were having issues with some of the cables on the Galankin Island chain and the twin islands due to weather and tides. We were having difficulties locating the issue but it was located and power was restored. But that was what was causing the little glitch,” she said.
Tuesday evening’s work took place near low tide, which the Sitka tide table indicates was a -2.1 foot tide at 8:25 p.m., more than a 14-foot swing from the 12.2 foot high tide at 1:33 p.m.
Winds on Tuesday reached 27 mph out of the east at 12:47 p.m. at the local airport, and a trace of rain was logged, the National Weather Service reported.
The city crew remained on the job through the night in an attempt to restore power to the islands.
“The line crew went out and they were extremely diligent. They stayed it there extremely late… they worked as many hours as they could, as long as they could to restore the power to the people out there,” Elstad said.
