Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Officials from Xcel Energy got an earful from Tucumcari officials and residents dissatisfied with the utility’s response to a 19-hour power outage in May.
Three Xcel officials attended a city commission work session Thursday to respond to complaints.
A tornado in Curry County knocked down the only electrical transmission line that serves Tucumcari. Xcel workers took longer than expected to fire up a diesel-powered generator that provides emergency backup power for the entire city.
Mayor Ralph Moya said businesses lost “a huge amount of production” due to the 19-hour outage. He said the Tucumcari Fire Department opened an emergency station to refill oxygen bottles and that Trigg Memorial Hospital was “overwhelmed” with patients. He said travelers low on fuel were stranded in Tucumcari because gas stations were inoperable.
“We’d like some answers,” he told Xcel officials in attendance.
Moya said city contracts with Xcel are “very loose,” and he would like to see future city commissions update them.
Todd Hancock, plant manager at Xcel, said an inverter and programmable logic controllers at the Tucumcari generation plant both failed during the outage.
Also, he said the severe storm delayed the dispatch of Xcel workers from Amarillo for several hours.
Hancock said the utility was forced to transport components from Hobbs to repair the city generator.
Xcel regional manager Mike McLeod said the generator had been tested monthly before and after the outage, with no problems.
“We had some equipment go down at the worst possible time it could go down,” he said.
Hancock said the inverter had indicated problems before the outage, and Xcel ordered a new one earlier in the year.
McLeod pointed out the generator was made for a four- to six-hour outage and not an electricity interruption of one to two hours.
He said without Xcel’s action, the outage could have stretched to 36 to 48 hours.
“It’s unfortunate, and we hope it doesn’t happen again,” McLeod said.
McLeod said the generator, once it finally ran, worked flawlessly. He admitted, however, to being “nervous” during a storm the next night that brought severe hail.
McLeod said adding a second transmission line to Tucumcari might not help, especially during an ice storm.
He said other communities in New Mexico, such as Loving and Hagerman, are served by just one line.
McLeod said Farmers Electric Cooperative has been contacted about possibly being an alternate energy source for the city, but it may not have the capacity.
Jeff Nunn of Citizens Bank said the 19-hour outage was “not acceptable.”
“We’ve got to get this fixed,” he said. “‘Don’t worry about it’ is not going to fly.”
Nunn’s comment elicited Xcel’s first apology, from Hancock, about 30 minutes into the work session.
“We take it (the outage) personally,” Hancock said. “We apologize.”
Cooper Glover, another Citizens Bank official, said he was “not feeling confidence” about Xcel.
Quay County Sheriff Dennis Garcia said “people’s lives were at risk” because phones were down during the outage. He also said businesses’ doors fitted with magnetic locks stood open because of the outage.
Garcia said his wife, who works in the healthcare field, told him local clinics lost doses of vaccines because the outage disrupted protocols in administering them.
McLeod said the company was looking into backup power alternatives and that grant money might be available for generators.
Jamie Luaders, coordinator of the region’s 911 system, said backup generators can work only so long and that another alternative power source is needed.
She said callers were wondering whether they would die because the outage had rendered oxygen and CPAP machines inoperative. She said her own insulin pump didn’t work because it’s linked to her cellphone.