Thousands still without power in Alaskan Interior as GVEA works to repair outages

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - Update: July 28, 2022.

As of Thursday, July 28, GVEA reports there are approximately 100 outages around Interior Alaska spanning from Clear to Delta Junction. Of the remaining outages, less than 300 members are effected. These numbers may rise and fall slightly as some members may lose power temporarily as crews continue to reconnect power to all affected members. Response time for areas that require off road attention will take longer to reconnect as they are more difficult to service.

Original Story: Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

Following a series of power outages on Monday, July 25, numerous homes in the Fairbanks area remain without electricity.

Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) continues working around the clock to restore power. However, progress is slowing because each outage that needs to be restored is affecting fewer and fewer people.

According to GVEA’s outage monitor, as of 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27 more than 1600 customers continue to be affected across 188 outages

Most of the power outages still being addressed have been caused by trees touching power lines or otherwise entering the right of way.

Others involve service drops, where someone’s home connects to the passing power line. Meadow Bailey, Director of External Affairs and Public Relations with GVEA said, “Some of the situations we’re coming across are where the service drop has been damaged and that’s the reason that the home doesn’t have power, and in those situations, it’s the homeowner’s responsibility to get repairs to their service drop. So we expect that will probably take even longer because the homeowner will need to coordinate with a licensed electrician.”

15 crews totaling 44 line workers are working to fix the outages

While larger outages are expected to be fixed on Thursday, July 28, smaller incidents may last into the weekend.

According to Bailey, the damage being seen is both more severe and widespread than was observed during the winter storms in December 2021.

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