GOSHEN COUNTY – Goshen County’s first glimpse of the severe weather season resulted in pea-sized hail, thunder, lightning and a prolonged rain that farmers and gardeners were likely happy to see.
Unfortunately, it also brought the first storm-related power outage of the year to portions of the area.
Lightning strikes were the most likely cause of power outages in Lingle and Torrington during a thunderstorm Wednesday evening. According to Eric Barendsen, Public Affair Specialist with the Western Area Power Administration, a lightning strike caused protective relays and system circuit breakers to trip, causing an outage that lasted around an hour and 45 minutes.
“There were thunderstorms rolling through the area at the time, and that is what typically triggers this type of outage,” Barendsen said. “What we assume is that a lightning strike activated protective relays and the system circuit breakers, which temporarily removed a transformer from service at the Torrington Substation.”

The Lingle outages were also caused by the storm, but it was a separate event than the strike that affected Torrington.
“Due to the storm activity, additional customers may have been affected in the Lingle area, but those interruptions were not associated with the Torrington outage,” he said.  
WAPA crews were dispatched from Gering, Neb., to tackle the issue. Barandsen said the stormy weather did not “have a significant impact on the restoration effort.
“Crews were dispatched from Gering, Nebraska, to inspect the transformer and reset it before restoring power to all customers around 8:45 p.m. All of WAPA’s customers in Torrington lost power,” he said.
WAPA provides power for both Wyrulec and the city of Torrington. Torrington Electric Department Superintendent Dana Youtz said the outage was out of the smaller entities hands.
“It was a much bigger deal,” he said.