Thousands of Laramie residents found themselves in total darkness when a power outage early this morning extinguished residential and city lights, starting at around 2 a.m.
David Eskelsen, a Rocky Mountain Power spokesman, said the company worked through the night to fix the problem.
“It started at about 2 a.m. and affected 7600 customers in Laramie. By 3 a.m., they reduced the number affected to 5300 customers,” Eskelsen said. “They were able to restore everyone to service at 6:25 a.m.”
The power is back on now, but only due to a temporary solution Rocky Mountain Power is using as it looks into the issue more.
“The problem was centered on a transformer in the Laramie substation about two miles north of town,” Eskelsen said. “They fixed this by switching power temporarily to other circuits. They’re still testing that transformer to make sure it’s running safely and there are no more overloads.”
The power is likely to stay on, Eskelsen said, but there is a small chance of the power company’s temporary solution giving out and causing further outages.
“We’re hoping there won’t be other outages but it’s possible since we’re on that alternate circuit,” he said. “We should be able to switch back without another outage.”
The UW Physical Plant was unavailable for comment.
