Effective 8/23/2022 the Douglas Forest Protection Association (DFPA) will be setting the Public Use Restriction to Extreme and the IFPL to level 3. Per our Wildfire Mitigation Plan we will be setting our protective devices to their highest settings in the Camas Valley, Tenmile, Lookingglass, Melrose, Umpqua, Oakland, Fair Oaks, Yoncalla, Drain and Elkton substations. The Scottsburg, Gardiner and Reedsport substations are in the Coos Forest Protective Association (CFPA) and they are currently at a moderate fire level so those substation will not be affected by this change.
When in their most sensitive settings, our protective devices will trip and stay open if there is any fault sensed on the line which could results in more outages. Per our fire mitigation plan, if a protective device is tripped, the entire line downstream from that device must be patrolled to ensure that it is clear of any trees or limbs prior to being reenergized. This process can take some time accomplish so outages may take longer to restore than usual to restore. Unfortunately, these settings can result in more frequent and longer outages but the intent is to mitigate the potential for a wildfire in our service territory.
Thank you for your patience.
