Winter is a temperamental season in Southwest Washington. Practically overnight, mild temperatures and sunshine can be overtaken by frigid winds and even heavy snow.
When the skies take a turn for the worse it can have a dramatic impact on the local electric grid and even the most robust infrastructure may be damaged. When the power goes out, line crews work hard to restore service to everyone as quickly as possible, always putting public safety first.
Customer reports are crucial to helping Clark Public Utilities restore service quickly. If the power goes out at your home or business, call the utility’s automated outage reporting line at 360-992-8000 or use the mobile friendly online outage reporting tool on ClarkPublicUtilities.com.
“The more reports we receive, the easier it is for us to locate the issue,” said Clark Public Utilities Transmission and Distribution Manager Mike Brown. “When we’re facing multiple outages across our service area we always address hazardous situations first, then our attention shifts to repairs that’ll restore power to the greatest number of customers at once.”
Imagine a powerful windstorm causes widespread damage and leaves your home and parts across the county without power. Once it’s clear that conditions are safe, crews will repair transmission lines first, because they deliver power to tens of thousands of customers across a wide area. Next, they’ll move on to substations, which benefit several thousand customers–depending on where you live and the damage done, repairs at this level may be all it takes for you and many others to see your service restored.
After substations, crews move out to feeder lines that connect whole neighborhoods to substations. After those repairs, line crews will tackle primary lines, which deliver electricity to as many as 30 customers at once. The final step in the process is correcting the outages that affect individual customers.
“Sometimes that final step can be a little tricky for crews because those individual outages can be difficult to track down or have some unusual conditions that cause one or two houses to remain without power after we’ve restored an entire neighborhood,” Brown said. “But customer outage reports really help us identify and correct those small lingering outages.”
How quickly the process takes can depend on the scope of the damage and where you live along the wire. Homes in and around urban areas will usually endure fewer and shorter outages, because the grid is more robust in those areas and power can be rerouted quickly. Folks living in rural parts of the county or along the end of the line may experience more and longer outages, given the rugged surroundings and remote location.
Regardless of where you live, it’s a smart practice to have an emergency kit, nonperishable food and a gallon of water per person, per day, for three days on hand in case of a prolonged outage. More information about building an outage kit is available on the utility’s website or at RedCross.org.
Utility employees pay close attention to the forecast and start preparing days in advance whenever a big storm is expected to come our way. When a storm is approaching, warehouse employees stage tools and supplies at the utility’s Operations Center so line crews can quickly grab what they need and go out to field. During the pandemic, these pick-ups are staggered to maintain distance between crews. The utility also has agreements with contractor crews who will be ready to get to work at moment’s notice when called.
Throughout a storm, the communications department stays in close contact with local media and uses social media platforms and the online outage map to provide information to customers.
“During a significant event, everyone springs into action,” Brown said. “It’s just the way we do things for our customers. All hands on deck till the lights are back on.”
Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98688.
