Faulty equipment cause of area power outage Monday

A power outage that affected an estimated 6,000 Xcel customers from Clovis to Muleshoe is being blamed on faulty power equipment.

Xcel spokesman Wes Reeves reports in a news release the power outage began about 10:55 a.m. Monday when “several breakers tripped at the Curry County Station.”

Reeves describes the station as “an important hub for the transmission network serving the area.”

Crews entered the substation and traced the outage origin to faulty transformer bushings that insulate the connections between the power line and transformer. The crew isolated the fault and redirected power around it, returning power to customers in stages.

Reeves reported all customers’ power was restored at 12:20 p.m.

A crew will go back into the substation to clean and repair the faulty bushings, but the repairs should not cause another interruption in service, according to Reeves.