Four power outages reported in Pullman Tuesday

Four small power outages affected a little more than 2,000 Avista customers in Pullman Tuesday.

The first outage was reported at 10:39 a.m., and power was restored around 11:19 a.m., said Debbie Simock, Avista spokesperson.

Simock said the cause of the outage was unknown, but crews had been working on a line at the time.

“We had crews doing work on a line, and in order to create a safe environment for the crew to work on the line we had a hot line hold,” she explained. “If anything happens when you have a hot line hold, the system won't heal itself.”

A hot line hold means the crews will repair the line rather than allow the power to automatically reboot.

“The lights may have just blinked without the hot line hold,” said Simock. “That's what they have to do when they're working on a live line. It's a very important safety precaution. The crews re-routed the power to bring customers back on.”

Simock said it was unknown if the crew's work contributed to the outage. The outage affected the southeastern and southwestern portions of the city, as well as the southern portion of the Washington State University campus.

Three other outages in Pullman Tuesday afternoon were reported as maintenance outages, Simock said. The outages were technically separate from the larger outage, but still located in the southern portion of the city.

“They're all rolled up into one,” said Simock.

Around 2:30 p.m., less than 100 customers were affected in the three outages. Maintenance crews had power completely restored by 3 p.m. Some traffic lights were reportedly affected in the outages. and the Pullman Police Department asked for motorists to treat intersections with non-working signals as four-way stops.