Why your power might go out during fire season — and stay out a little longer
You may notice more brief outages this summer, and that's on purpose. To help prevent wildfires, we've adjusted the equipment that protects our power lines.
Normally, when something like a branch or animal touches a line, our "reclosers" automatically flip the power back on within seconds, since most of these faults clear on their own. But during hot, dry, windy conditions, that automatic restart can be risky. If a line has actually fallen into dry brush, switching it back on could throw sparks and start a fire.
So with the change to high fire danger, we're doing two things:
⚡ Making our reclosers more sensitive, so they cut power faster at the first sign of trouble.
🔌 Turning off the automatic reclose, or setting the recloser to, “one-shot” so a tripped line stays off until our crew drives out, inspects it, and confirms it's safe.
Our wildfire mitigation plan is based on a matrix of risk level, temperature, humidity, and wind conditions so we may adjust the reclosers back to automatic if the matrix allows.
This means outages may last longer than you're used to — but it's a deliberate safety step to keep a downed line from sparking a wildfire in our communities. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to keep everyone safe. 💛