An outage at about 1:30 p.m. Nov. 19 cut power to 16,000 Homer Electric Association meters and affected members from south Kachemak Bay to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula. HEA engineers fully restored power to all customers by 2:30 p.m.

The outage started when there was a frequency problem on the transmission system, HEA spokesperson Joe Gallagher said in a news release on Nov. 20. The issue was complicated in that the HEA grid was isolated from the rest of the Railbelt area due to work Chugach Electric did on a facility in Cooper Landing. HEA worked with Chugach Electric to put the transmission system back in normal operation and then begin restoring power.

Gallagher said the exact cause of the frequency variation that created the outage is unclear.