Rocky Mountain Power uses controlled outage to safeguard against wildfire damage

BEAVER, Utah (KUTV) — A fire in Beaver, Utah left customers 50 miles away in Cedar City in the dark Tuesday night.

According to Rocky Mountain Power Spokesperson, David Eskelsen, the Sheep Rock Fire’s location threatened their equipment.

“The fire’s proximity to our equipment was the reason we deenergized that line,” Eskelsen said.

RELATED:Wildfire sparks east of Beaver, power lines de-energized

He also said that the fire was at risk of burning through powerlines that impacted multiple substations. If that happened, he said, the outages could have been much worse.

That proactive shutdown resulted in more than 16,000 customers without power.

Rocky Mountain Power officials asserted that this controlled outage was out of an abundance of caution.

“An uncontrolled fault is much worse than a controlled outage. That’s why we take a proactive outage when a wildfire encroaches next to our equipment rather than tough it out,” Eskelsen said.

Another proactive step Rocky Mountain Power is taking — fireproof tree wraps.

“A lot of our transmission structures are made of wood poles and they can be vulnerable to dire if it’s hot enough,” he said.

Dense smoke poses a risk as well.

“The smoke from a fire can be an electric conductive. If the smoke is dense enough, it can cause a fault on the transmission line,” Eskelsen said.

Rocky Mountain Power officials are confident that the widespread controlled outage was the safest option for both their equipment and their customers.

“When you’re talking about wildfire, you’re talking about a really dynamic situation that can change really quickly," Taking an outage of that size was, in the judgement of our operations personnel, the right decision in the moment.”

Eskelsen says that, within about two hours, all power was restored.

When it comes to future controlled outages, “prior notice really can’t be given,” he said.

He recommended staying prepared with a 72-hour emergency kit.

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