Accident-fueled outages put electric system in question

After two unforeseen incidences that both took out power to portions of Sidney last weekend, city councilman Mark Nienhueser questioned the city’s electrical system.

“It’s something all the time,” he said. “There is questions about the reliability of our system being asked.”

The city is still attempting to ascertain the cause of the electric pole fire that took place on Sunday evening. About half of the city’s electric load was cut off for one hour while firefighters extinguished the blaze.

“We did not find anything on our wires, conductors, terminators or anything that gave us a good indication of what transpired over there,” said Public Services Director John Hehnke.

Many of the councilmen agreed that a previously requested electrical systems review would be helpful in moving forward and alleviating any issues with the system.

The review is currently being conducted and should be finished by the city’s budget workshops in early August, Hehnke said. Electric service was also interrupted on Saturday after a driver ran into an electric pole that carried one of the city’s major power lines.

“Two in one weekend throws out the question, what’s the quality of our system,” Nienhueser said.

Nienhueser questioned how many other poles in town that carry those major lines are at risk of compromise.

“Every pole in town in susceptible to being damaged by people,” Hehnke said.

The driver who ran into the pole left the roadway, hit a sign and a barbed wire fence before crashing into the pole. The pole that was hit on the north side is outside the highway right of way. Nienhueser suggested placing some sort of barrier around poles that carry major electrical lines and are near roadways.

“I just think we need to look at these ones that are highly susceptible and take some action on them,” Nienhueser said.