• LVE explains how hot and dry conditions impact power outage decisions
With multiple days over 90 degrees over the past two weeks, locals are aware that hot days dry out the area vegetation and can cause fires. What you may not know is that these types of ‘Red Flag’ days, or days with hot temperatures, low humidity and higher than normal winds, may cause your local power supplier, Lower Valley Energy, to keep the electricity turned off longer than they would normally like to.
“One of our main goals is quality of service,” stated Jim Webb, LVE CEO in an interview during the Weekday Wake-up radio program. “We hate outages as much as anyone. This time of year we have to follow the protocol of our fire mitigation plan and that can impact the quality of service. Public safety can impact our service but we have to provide safety first.”
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What this means is, certain technologies such as reclosers, which can keep power on in the case of an outage, will not be used on a Red Flag day in certain situations.
“On Red Flag days we have to have things on a more sensitive setting which means that the power will be off and we will have a guy come out and patrol,” Webb continued. “Which means what would normally be a momentary blink will be an outage as we come take a look at things.”
This is done in order to try and slow down or potentially prevent what could turn into an out of control blaze. One fire in particular where LVE sent three trucks and six people to help was the Paradise Fire in California which claimed the lives of 85 people and burned the town off the map. Webb explained that the experience of sending people and equipment to the area was beneficial as a learning experience and as a good neighbors and citizens.
Another example of a devastating fire was in Maui recently so it is these types of events that have us as utility companies trying to do what we can to mitigate the spread. So you might see more outages and they might last longer because of our protocol. If that happens we are trying to do our best to provide public safety.”
Webb also stated that LVE goes over every outage every month to try and learn from the situation.
“We take things very seriously so once a month we review every single outage and develop a list of what needs to be done,” he said. “This time of year you’ll see our contractors out replacing wire and trimming trees to try and keep outages to a minimum.”
Webb also added that the public’s help is crucial.
“We need everybody’s help so if you see something, please say something and call us,” he said. “If you see a branch hitting a line or maybe a tree that is leaning into a line or something like that please let us know so we can take care of it. You’re not bothering us, we want to know.”
