
He also said designing a fail-safe, 100 percent reliable system would be prohibitively expensive. I have another neighbor on the Box Elder power grid who very seldom experiences power outages.”Įskelsen said Rocky Mountain Power makes every effort to provide a reliable system and said the company does its best to mitigate power interruptions. I feel like Rocky Mountain Power doesn’t keep them up to date, and that is why the power always goes out! I feel forgotten, except I pay my bills on time just like everyone else. I think the poles out here and the equipment are not safe. “It seems like the power goes off quite frequently. “I feel like our voices are not being heard,” she said. Shock expressed frustration with Rocky Mountain Power, saying the outages could have been averted “if Rocky Mountain Power did routine checks and kept their equipment up to par.” “We have some great neighbors with generators and were able to things under control,” she said, “but most people around us were not that lucky.” She also said one of her neighbors who relies on oxygen had to scramble to find batteries. Jessie Shock, who lives in Petersboro, said she and twelve of her neighbors had major flooding due to the power loss because their sump pumps were inoperable. “I am just counting my blessings that the heat was the worst of our problems, as I know many others have suffered a lot more inconvenience than my family.” “I can’t even imagine what we would have done if this had happened in the winter,” she said. Jamie Hunter, a resident of Wellsville, said the temperature in her home dropped below 50 degrees overnight Friday, and her four young children “froze when the heater wouldn’t come on.” In this case, getting a new component up from Salt Lake City, taking the old one out and putting a new one in did consume a lot of time.“Ĭomments on social media mentioned multiple complications arising as a result of such a lengthy outage-ruined food, “fried” computer equipment and a chilly night’s sleep to name a few. You think you know what the problem is and what the solution is, so you set an estimated time with the best information that you have, but it turns out that something more complicated is necessary. “Sometimes that happens when you have a more complicated repair. “We do apologize for the fact that the estimated restoration time kept getting pushed out,” Eskelsen said. When repairs failed, a new regulator was ordered. “Once they determined that it was the voltage regulator that was bad,” he said of the second work order, “they had to make a decision, ‘okay, do we go back and repair this thing or replace it?’”Įskelsen said crews first attempted to repair the failed regulator because a new one had to come from Salt Lake City. While Rocky Mountain Power dispatched repair crews immediately, Eskelsen said it took time to diagnose the problems. The second, longer lasting outage was reported at 11:41 p.m.
#Rocky mountain power utah outages full#
on Friday, with full power being restored at 10:40 p.m.
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Lights in the impacted communities originally dimmed around 7:40 p.m. Rocky Mountain Power Spokesman Dave Eskelsen said two separate-but likely related-work orders were involved, the first being a problem with a fuse in the Nibley substation and the second being a failed voltage regulator. It also said along with the wind, 5 to 10% humidity is causing critical fire weather conditions to occur, allowing for any new fire starts to spread rapidly.A large-scale power outage in Wellsville, Mendon and College Ward left more than 2,800 Rocky Mountain Power customers without electricity for nearly 24 hours over the weekend. The service said southernly winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 65 mph are expected. The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for all of Southern Utah and a high wind warning for Iron and Washington counties through 10 p.m. “Rocky Mountain Power is taking additional safety precautions by directing additional personnel and resources to monitor weather impact on the system,” the statement said. Power arcs from power lines can spark wildfires, especially in windy and dry conditions. With high wind and red flag warnings, Rocky Mountain Power said it is prepared the temporarily shut power down through its transmission lines if fire risk becomes too severe. Rocky Mountain Power, which handles electricity of the area, has issues what is calls a “Public Safety Power Shutoff Watch” for the area on Friday and Saturday. Stock photo.| Photo by Iryna Melnyk/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. GEORGE - Residents of Cedar City and Iron County may need to keep candles and flashlights on standby for the next two days.
