A power outage Sunday night was the fault of a crow that flew into a power line near the Ketchikan Shipyard.
Ketchikan Public Utilities Electric Division Manager Andy Donato says that crews found the dead bird Monday, plus a witness who saw the impact.
Sunday’s power outage started a little after 7 p.m. Crews started bringing sections back on line within about half an hour, and by about 8:45 p.m., everyone had power again.
Donato says that KPU has an “avian protection” program, in hopes of deterring birds from hitting the lines, killing themselves and shutting down the grid. Measures include balls on the lines to make the wires more visible, and triangles on the crossbeams, so they’re less attractive for birds wanting to take a break.
Donato says those measures help quite a bit, but they’re not 100 percent effective.
Sunday’s outage follows another one just last Thursday, but that one was caused by a Southeast Alaska Power Agency engineer who was testing a computer system at the Swan Lake hydroelectric dam. Donato says he has stopped that testing work until he and SEAPA officials can come up with a plan to avoid another mishap.