Feds launch review of Wednesday’s blackout

For the past two days, Local News 8 has been following Wednesday’s blackout and asking what went wrong.

It turns out the feds have some questions of their own and are launching a review of Rocky Mountain Power.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would only confirm the review is taking place and wouldn’t say specifically what they’re looking at.

On FERC’s website, it says if they can show a company violated reliability standards, these reviews can potentially result in civil penalties.

All throughout this ordeal, Rocky Mountain Power has maintained it’s done nothing wrong, but a Rocky Mountain Power spokesman declined to comment on whether FERC’s review would corroborate that.

“I’m not going to speculate on results of that review process other than to say that we have specific rules for operating our transmission system, and we adhere to those rules and we’re cooperating and providing information to help enable this review process,” said Jeff Hymas, a spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power.

Hymas said these reviews are typical following a blackout of Wednesday’s magnitude, which left around 65,000 people without power.