Underground utility issue causes power outage to 4,000 customers in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - An unplanned power outage in South Lake Tahoe on Thursday night left about 4,0000 customers without power for about five hours.

On Thursday, November 2 at 5:55 p.m., Liberty Utilities experienced an issue with their underground infrastructure and power lines, causing the outage.

"When underground equipment or cable fails, repairs can often be more time-consuming because it may be difficult to determine the precise location of the interruption," explained Kurt Althof, Liberty's regional communications manager. "Underground repairs may take three to four times longer than overhead repairs. The issue must be identified and then the underground lines excavated before troubleshooting can begin."

There was full restoration by 11:04 p.m.

Liberty recently changed to a new outage management platform. This platform’s new outage map did not show the correct number of customers impacted by the outage on November 2, and Liberty is working to resolve this discrepancy, according to Althof.

After receiving reports of the outage, Liberty sent text, email, and voice notifications to affected customers to their contact information on file. Liberty encourages customers to update their contact information on file to receive outage notifications. Customers can call 1-800-782-2506 or visit https://california.libertyutilities.com/north-lake-tahoe/residential/my-account/my-bill/my-profile.html to update their contact information.