Travis Smart, an OTEC lineman, works in La Grande on Jan. 17, 2023. 

A problem on an Idaho Power Company transmission line southeast of Baker City led to a widespread power outage affecting Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative customers in Baker and Union counties Sunday morning, Nov. 26.

The power went out around 6:15 a.m. for about 10,700 OTEC meters, including all of Baker City as well as Sumpter, North Powder and Union, among other towns affected, said Shane Stenquist, manager of communications for the cooperative based in Baker City.

That’s more than one-third of OTEC’s 31,000 meters. The cooperative has about 23,000 members in Baker, Union, Grant and Harney counties.

“It was one of the larger outages we’ve had in recent memory,” Stenquist said.

OTEC’s distribution system is designed to be redundant, he said, meaning linemen crews were able to reroute power to avoid the Idaho Power line and restore electricity.

The outage ended in Baker City around 9:25 p.m., and power was restored to all members by 10:45 a.m., Stenquist said.

Idaho Power is investigating the cause of the outage and is in contact with OTEC, said Maria Willacy, corporate communications specialist for Idaho Power.

Sunday’s outage coincided with one of the colder mornings of the season. The temperature dipped to 10 degrees at the Baker City Airport.

Eric Wirfs, director of operations for OTEC, said the problem on the Idaho Power line — he didn’t know what caused it — resulted in a circuit breaker tripping to prevent damage to the line.

Idaho Power is replacing that transmission line, which runs through the Burnt River Canyon near Interstate 84.

With that line unavailable Sunday morning, OTEC crews instead routed power through a different transmission line, which OTEC owns, that runs south from La Grande to Baker City, Wirfs said.

He said OTEC reconnected to the Idaho Power line when the company said it was ready. Wirfs said on Monday morning, Nov. 27, that that was likely to happen later in the day.

Using the Idaho Power line is part of OTEC’s redundant system, Wirfs said. Because La Grande is supplied from a different line, the problem on the Idaho Power line didn’t cause an outage in La Grande.