City to modify electrical system, expect power outages

City electrical crews will be making modifications to the electrical system in central Blaine starting Friday, April 23, which will require short intermittent power outages for two months in those residential areas. The outages will not affect the Semiahmoo area.

Public works director Bernie Ziemianek said crews will be notifying affected residents in person or with door hangers with information two to three days before any planned outages.

“It’s a pretty simple procedure but we just need to have some outages in order to get the work done,” he said.

The city’s electrical system is made up of above and below ground cables. While work will be done in both areas, Ziemianek said the majority of work will be done on the underground parts of the system. He said public works foresees outages in these areas due to overheating during the summer months if these modifications are not made now. “We want to bring [the system] more into balance,” he said.

Crews have already started notifying residents and will begin work Friday with an expected finish date of June 30. Ziemianek said the work is pretty simple but the city wants to give residents who will be affected by the outages time to prepare for any inconvenience they may cause.

Last September, the city experienced a series of power outages that then interim public works director Bob Hammond said were likely due to what is sometimes called “an underground storm.” This happens when the vulnerable areas within the system – old or faulty cables – fail after it rains or storms for the first time after a dry season, Hammond said in October 2020.

In a September 28, 2020 Blaine City Council meeting, Hammond warned council that more outages were possible. He later recommended the city budget for updates to be made on the system this spring.

Ziemianek said these upcoming modifications are not the circuit update project for which the city has budgeted. Public works is anticipating the engineering and design work for that update will be completed in the next couple months, he said. Once that is complete, the city can place a bid for the update.

Hammond had said some components of the electrical system have been there since its inception, which was in 1890, according to the city of Blaine website.

In a public notice, the city said the modifications will help meet its goal to provide reliable and continued electrical service. “We appreciate your support of our efforts and apologize for the inconvenience,” the notice reads.