Power Restored After Massive Outage In Summit County
BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - Two large Colorado ski resorts -- Keystone and Breckenridge -- were closed at the start of the ski day Friday due to a power outage. Power was restored just before 3 p.m.
The outage affected other areas in Summit County as well, and some schools were forced to close.
Approximately 15,000 customers in Breckenridge were out of power at 9 a.m. The governor of Colorado's office is asking people to stay informed by following Town of Breckenridge, Summit County Government, Summit County Sheriff's Office for current updates, closures and individual preparedness efforts.
The outage comes at a dire time -- temperatures in Colorado's mountains are currently in the single digits.
A source told CBS4, Xcel lost gas pressure on a major transmission line in the county. The utility is now forcing deliberate rolling electric outages to conserve use of gas in hopes they can avoid a complete gas outage. Most gas appliances and furnaces still use electricity (such as the fan on a furnace) so the electric outages substantially drop the use of gas while keep pilot lights on. If the pilots go out, it's much worse because service isn't restored until crews visit homes.
All elementary schools in the Summit County school district closed for the day due to the outage.
Keystone tweeted after 9 a.m. that they were able to get a few lifts open.
Copper Mountain said power issues were affecting some of their operations but they are still open. A Basin said they are open for skiing and snowboarding and that they are not affected by the outage.
Windy conditions also forced Keystone to close for a period on Thursday. Night skiing Thursday night was also canceled due to the cold temperatures.
