Electric Co-op Today

Early snowfalls in the Mountain West have caused sporadic power outages in areas served by electric cooperatives.

Bevan Frost heads toward a backcountry ski area during an Oct. 26 storm that hit parts of Colorado. (Photo By: Associated Press/Summit Daily News, Mark Fox)

While lineworkers have been able to respond quickly in many cases, accumulations of heavy, wet snow on trees have snapped branches and sent broken limbs into power lines, knocking out service to thousands.

“We had a great summer, with good growing conditions, and then we seemed to have moved right into winter with this snowstorm,” said Ric Soulen, communications specialist for Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association.

A snowstorm that swept through the Fort Collins, Colo.-based co-op’s 2,000 square mile service area Oct. 25 dumped a foot of snow or more in some communities.

That was enough to weigh down leaf-laden tree branches, bringing them into contact with power lines. “Usually we’ll get a hard frost that will kill a lot of the leaves on the trees, but this year that didn’t happen,” said Soulen.

About 12,000 of the co-op’s 35,000 consumer-members were without power at various times over a 24-hour period.

Crews were working to restore service to about 2,300 meters Oct. 27. “We’ve had about 17 of our crews working on restoration,” said Soulen. “Mountain View Electric, based in Limon, sent us three crews and three bucket trucks to help us restore power.”

The Colorado storm was the latest in a series of wintry weather events to sweep through mountainous areas of the West since early October. An early bout of cold weather that struck New Mexico Oct. 7 caused widespread outages in the service territory of Taos-based Kit Carson Electric Cooperative.

The weight of the leaves combined with the snow to push limbs of trees well outside the co-op’s 20 foot right of way into power lines, said Luis Reyes, the co-op’s CEO. Although service to most affected areas was restored within hours, it took lineworkers days to fully restore power in some rugged areas.

“This was early, heavy snow,” said Reyes. “This was the earliest I’ve seen it in 15 years.”

Tags: Lineworkers, Power Outages, Response