About 3,400 households and businesses in Marion County were without power Monday evening during an historic heat wave.
Portland General Electric reported multiple outages in ZIP codes 97302 and 97306, both in south Salem. The outages began just before 5 p.m. Monday.
The utility also reported two smaller outages in Polk County Monday evening affecting 79 customers. Power for those households will be back on by 7:30 p.m., according to the utility website.
By 9 p.m. Monday, most Salem-area households had power back on, the utility’s website showed.
The outages are heat related, PGE spokesman John Farmer said.
“We’ve seen unprecedented temperatures these past few days, and we know that high demand strains electrical equipment in our system, which can lead to power outages. The other factor is the extreme heat itself, which places an additional strain on our equipment,” Farmer said in an email.
He said PGE had about 350 people working in the field Monday to restore power and make sure equipment was operating during peak demand.
Salem recorded its highest-ever temperature Monday afternoon at 117 degrees.
-Rachel Alexander
