Mylar balloon blamed for Jasper power outage

A mylar balloon is to blame for the power outage that affected two major manufacturers and a large part of the city Monday.

According to Jasper Electric Distribution Manager Jerry Schitter, the balloon was blown in ahead of the first storm that hit the county. It floated into the southwest substation and caused a disruption that kicked out a breaker feeding a circuit on U.S. 231 to the “Y” and a circuit feeding Division Road at around 2:50 p.m. The power outage impacted Jasper Engines and Jasper Rubber Products.

Crews investigating the outage found the remains of a mylar balloon that had landed between two phases causing the disruption.

No major damages were reported from the incident.

“It took a lot of our customers off line in the middle of the day while they were working,” Schitter said.

“This is the second time it has happened this year,” Schitter added.

The other incident involved a balloon becoming entangled on a powerline near the Riverwalk. “It slid down the pole span [electrical line between two poles] until it got to the pole and found a ground and the conductor and caused a trip,” he explained.

He recommended the public not release mylar balloons into the air. “Whatever goes up is going to come back down,” Schitter said. “The carelessness of letting those fly; look how pretty; not really.”

Mylar balloons have a metallic skin that conducts electricity and can cause shorts to occur. Concise records on how often the balloons have caused outages were not available but power companies have reported the ballons cause thousands of outages annually.