Two Penticton power outages in two days unrelated

PENTICTON – A number of the City of Penticton’s power customers suffered through power outages on two separate occasions this week.

Penticton communications officer Tina Lee says electrical customers in the Wiltse Drive and Duncan Avenue area, along with portions of the industrial area were affected for approximately one hour on Wednesday afternoon, May 11, following a completely unrelated power outage Tuesday.

Lee says yesterday's power outage affected about 4,000 customers. She says the problem originated in Fortis supply at the Carmi substation.

Tuesday’s power outage affected 2,000 customers in the city for approximately one hour. Power was restored by 6 p.m., Lee says.

The cause of Tuesday’s outage is unknown. Lee says crews patrolled the lines but couldn’t find a reason for the outage.

“We have had situations in the past where animals, aluminum foil, balloons and birds dropping fish have caused similar outages,” Lee says.


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Steve Arstad

I have been looking for news in the South Okanagan - SImilkameen for 20 years, having turned a part time lifelong interest into a full time profession. After five years publishing a local newsletter, several years working as a correspondent / stringer for several local newspapers and seven years as editor of a Similkameen weekly newspaper, I joined iNFOnews.ca in 2014. My goal in the news industry has always been to deliver accurate and interesting articles about local people and places. My interest in the profession is life long - from my earliest memories of grade school, I have enjoyed writing.
As an airborne geophysical surveyor I travelled extensively around the globe, conducting helicopter borne mineral surveys.
I also spent several years at an Okanagan Falls based lumber mill, producing glued-wood laminated products.
As a member of the Kaleden community, I have been involved in the Kaleden Volunteer Fire Department for 22 years, and also serve as a trustee on the Kaleden Irrigation District board.
I am currently married to my wife Judy, of 26 years. We are empty-nesters who enjoy living in Kaleden with our Welsh Terrier, Angus, and cat, Tibbs.
Our two daughters, Meagan and Hayley, reside in Richmond and Victoria, respectively.

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