Alliant Energy continues work to restore electric service to Cedar Rapids downtown business district

Company expects to begin restoring electric service to southern half of downtown business district early next week

Interstate Power and Light Company, an Alliant Energy company, continues work on the downtown business electric network in an ongoing effort to restore service as quickly and safely as possible to customers impacted by the flooding.

The company successfully energized the northern half of the downtown electric network system, which is generally north of Second Avenue SE, on June 30. Alliant Energy is reconnecting customers in the northern downtown district if customers are able to have service restored. The company is also completing work on a temporary substation that will provide power to customers located generally south of Second Avenue SE. Testing on the southern half of the downtown electric network will continue through the weekend. Contingent upon the positive outcome of these tests, the company expects to begin restoring electric service to customers in this area of the downtown business district that can safely have service restored early next week.

Businesses in downtown Cedar Rapids district need to be aware that in many cases, the entire building, not just individual businesses, will need to be repaired and ready for power restoration before Alliant Energy can safely restore electric service to individual customers within the building.

Electric service reconnection is not possible unless all customers in a building are ready for electricity. Reconnecting a segment of a building for individual tenants could cause serious safety concerns for restoration workers and other building tenants. In some cases, individual businesses that are ready for their power to be reconnected will need to wait until the rest of the building is ready for electric service to be restored. The company encourages businesses to work with building owners to determine when the entire building is ready to safely accept electric service.

Businesses impacted by the flooding will be reconnected after all inspections and repairs by a licensed electrician and the City of Cedar Rapids are completed. If business customers located in this area are unsure of their current electric service status, they are encouraged to contact Alliant Energy at 1-866-255-4268 for more information.

“Safety remains our focus as we work to restore electric service to our customers in the downtown electric network,” said Tom Aller, president-IPL. “We continue to work with our customers to ensure that their electric service is restored as quickly and safely as possible. As customers complete clean up efforts, we will continue to work with them to restore service after all inspections and approvals have been granted.”

The company also expects to resume steam service to some of its Cedar Rapids customers by July 7. Package boilers are expected to provide steam system service to customers except to low pressure steam system customers. The low pressure system, or ten pound system, incurred significant damage during the flooding. Assessments on the low pressure system continue.

Power plant and other facility assessment and clean up continue as well. The Sixth Street and Prairie Creek Generating Stations will remain offline until repairs are completed. No timeline has been established as to when the power plants will be back online.

Crews continue to reconnect electricity to customers where it is safe to do so. At the peak of the flooding, more than 30,000 Cedar Rapids area customers were without electric service. Approximately 2,000 customers remain without power. Most of these customers are located in areas heavily affected by flood damage.

Please note that Alliant Energy does not charge for flood-related disconnects and reconnects. Shutting off electric service during times of flooding is done for safety purposes. Alliant Energy will not charge customers to have service turned off when flooding occurs, or turned back on after the clean up is completed.