On June 8, 2008 at around 6:20 PM Vinton was left without power when Alliant Energy experienced transmission line failure when a severe thunderstorm went through the area. The generation crew was finally able to pick up the entire city after a couple of attempts. Alliant Energy had their transmission issue resolved by around 9 PM and the generation crew was able to shut down the generators at about 9:05 PM.

On May 5th at around 12:20 PM VMEU customers on the east and south end of town were left without power when a 3 phase capacitor located in our east substation building failed. The capacitor exploded, taking the back panel door hinges and ripping them apart and breaking the top off of a station class lightning arrestor. The concussion in the building was so great that it moved the steel frame & wall 3 inches off it's foundation on the north side of the building when a weld broke. The impact from the capacitor was on the south side of the building and we are still not sure why the north wall moved instead of the south wall. Customers in the immediate area of the substation of 1-2 blocks experienced voltage issues resulting in damage to sensitive electronic equipment. VMEU has hired a consultant to determine why the capacitor failed. The preliminary findings of the consultant indicate that the failure of two lightning arrestors at different locations in Vinton probably caused the problem. One lightning arrestor can short out to ground on our system and you will never know it, but let a second one fail on the system and issues like the one experienced on May 5th can occur. Crews were working at the intersection of 6th street and 8th avenue earlier replacing small conductors with larger ones but everyone had gone to lunch when the incident occurred. Customers that experienced damage between 7th Ave to 10th Ave in the area of  6th street to 9th street are asked to call the office if they have not already done so and give us your name, address and phone number.