Power knocked out in Cedar Rapids by bird tampering with substation

If your home or business in northwest Cedar Rapids lost power Monday evening, you can blame Mother Nature.

Alliant Energy spokesman Justin Foss said a bird came in contact with power lines inside the company's E Avenue NW substation at 7:03 p.m. Monday.

'We had to reroute the power and we got everyone back on about 7:45,” Foss said. 'It affected a total of 3,940 customers because it happened at the substation.”

Phyllis Peters, Mediacom Communications spokeswoman, said the power outage affected 544 customers between First Avenue SW and Second Avenue SW. She said service was restored with the return of electricity.

Foss said Alliant Energy puts special guards and protection on all sorts of equipment to prevent similar incidents.

'We find that no matter what we do, Mother Nature finds a way,” Foss said. 'The equipment that we install reduces it, but there's no way to eliminate it.”

Tim Van Weelden, Alliant Energy manager of substation construction and maintenance, said a bird's beak was able to penetrate a plastic shield on a terminal on top of a transformer in the E Avenue NW substation. The bird was standing on top of the transformer, which is grounded, and came in contact with a wire carrying power.

'He shoved his beak in there somehow,” Van Weelden said. 'We're not sure how because everything was burned up.”

Van Weelden said Alliant Energy officials were able to reroute power from another substation to restore service.

'It's really hard to keep the birds out,” he said. 'If we don't, the raccoons show up because the eggs and baby birds make a nice meal. The birds don't usually cause us a lot of problems, but the raccoons are longer and they get in trouble when they try to reach the nests.”

Birds aside, Foss said Alliant Energy is prepared for the energy demands of hot summer weather.

'We work with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which operates the greater power grid across all the states in the Midwest down to Texas and north into Canada,” he said. 'We have energy to supply all the needs and MISO says it has about 18 percent margin to handle the highest peak.

'Over the last few years, we've been upgrading the voltage to our distribution center here in town. That means energy is flowing a lot easier from the substation to the customer.

'On a hot day, we have bigger units that can handle more energy than ever before.”

Alliant Energy and MidAmerican Energy have voluntary residential and commercial/industrial programs in place to reduce the load on power grids when temperatures climb.

'We offer an $8 billing credit in the summer for customers who are willing to let us cycle their air conditioning in 15-minute intervals throughout the afternoon,” Foss said. 'The furnace fan will continue to circulate the cooler, drier air already in the home.”

Ruth Comer, media relations manager at MidAmerican Energy, said industrial and commercial customers also can get a break on their electric bill if they agree to reduce their use on days of peak system load.

'They sign up and agree to reduce their electricity usage by a specific kilowatt amount during what we call a curtailment event,” Comer said. 'They can do different activities, such as reducing air conditioning or not using certain equipment,”