Last night, March 28, 2021, a total of 1,520 Mohave Electric Cooperative (MEC) members were without power when an isolated electrical short occurred in the underground system in Bullhead City near the Desert Foothills area.
The outage first occurred at 5:24 PM. Crews worked to restore power to as many members as possible while working to solve an unknown issue at this time. MEC rerouted power using circuit switching, restoring 510 members at 8:21 PM, an additional 594 members had power restored at 9:36 PM, another 415 had power restored at 9:45 PM, and the remaining member without power was restored at 11:15 PM.
Power outages that occur in underground locations can be extensive and require technique in locating the issue. Crews isolated the general location by sectionalizing the power supply until crews were able to determine the exact location to investigate for the outage source.
Rick Campos, COO of MEC stated, “Finding a faulty piece of electrical equipment located underground can be like finding a needle in a haystack for our crew members. Electric facilities underground or locked in a pad-mounted cabinet are not visible for our crews to see unlike overhead facilities. We are thankful for MEC’s professional, dedicated crew members that have a great understanding of our electric system. They are the ones that create and execute a plan to safely restore our members electric services.”
Outage restoration is a priority to Mohave Electric Cooperative, and every effort is made to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
Please remember, it is important to always report an outage! Outages can be reported through our SmartHub application, through our texting service by texting “outage” to 55050, or by calling 1-844-632-2667.