Two months after a power outage struck one of Utah’s largest medical centers, investigators still don’t know what caused the failure.
Murray’s Intermountain Medical Center lost power for unknown reasons at about 11:15 a.m. on Aug. 14. Its backup generator failed shortly after, and full power wasn’t restored to the campus until 1 p.m. that day, forcing the hospital to divert incoming ambulances and transfer some patients, including five babies and six laboring mothers.
The medical campus returned to normal operations the following day. Since then, Intermountain employees have been investigating the outage — and in partnership with local and national experts, crews have conducted “over 100 rigorous tests at the medical complex,” spokesperson Jess Gomez said.
But despite the tests, Gomez said investigators have been unable to determine what caused the outage. Crews are still reviewing the power failure but are unsure if they will be able to determine the root cause, he added.
The day after the outage, Murray Fire Chief Joseph Mittelman said the power failure was not caused by an issue with Murray City Power, the hospital’s energy provider. The hospital campus appeared to be the only place within Murray City Power’s boundary that experienced a significant outage that day, the city’s outage map showed.
“We want to assure our community that every possible measure is being taken to safeguard our hospital’s operations,” Gomez said in a statement. “As part of our review process, we have prioritized system upgrades and technical adjustments designed to prevent a recurrence. While the root cause of the outage remains undetermined, we are committed to ensuring this situation does not occur again.”
Note to readers •This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.