Wear and tear leads to Sunday power outage

CHENEY – An aging connection’s failure led to a power outage early Sunday morning, leaving a number of customers without heat.

According to Light Director Steve Marx, around midnight on Saturday, Jan. 30, a “hot tap” failed and burned through a main power line and tripped feeder No. 6 at the city’s main substation on Cheney-Plaza Road. A hot tap is a connection to a main power line which over time can fail due to the elements, wind and vibrations that can loosen the connection.

“This creates small gaps at the connection to the main line, which can create arching and sparking (heat), which can...