Attempted copper theft causes outage; Las Vegas airport loses power
Updated February 4, 2025 - 12:26 pm
An attempted copper wire theft at an energy substation caused a temporary power outage on Monday, according to NV Energy.
The outage began at about 3:15 p.m. and affected 12 customers at its peak, the company said.
As of 6:15 p.m on Monday., one person was still affected by the outage, the company said. Its crews are working to restore power.
Crews continued to work Tuesday to make repairs at the substation and replace equipment that was damaged Monday, the company said.
“NV Energy believes the copper theft on Monday ultimately damaged several pieces of equipment which led to the outage in our community,” the company wrote in an email.
The company did not disclose the location of the incident, but said that NV Energy facilities are often a target for copper theft.
“Copper thefts are growing more sophisticated, with thieves finding workarounds to avoid being shocked or more seriously injured during theft,” the company said.
NV Energy said it reports all theft to the Metropolitan Police Department and takes precautions to ensure the facilities are secure.
Metro confirmed an open investigation into the incident, and said that no arrests have been made. It said that officers responded to the 5600 block of Procyon Street regarding a grand larceny.
Harry Reid International Airport had two power outages on Monday. The first one at Terminal 3 lasted from 3:30 p.m. until it was restored at 5:18 p.m., according to an airport spokesperson. Checkpoints were down during the outage.
NV Energy did not confirm whether this incident was related.
The airport suffered another outage at 6:45 p.m., when all of the C gates in Terminal 1 lost power. The power was restored by 8 p.m., according to the airport. When power is out at the airport, the electronic doors to planes lock and flights can be delayed.
Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.