Why Are There Overnight Outages?
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Every year, Northern Lights (NLI) has system upgrade projects and repairs that need to be made. Sometimes these require planned power outages to safely complete the work.
Bonneville Power Administration provides transmission service to NLI and has projects to upgrade and repair its system. When the transmission system or a substation needs to be taken offline, this often impacts a wide area of our service territory, resulting in planned outages for many members. Think of the transmission system as a freeway being closed for work. NLI’s distribution system is more like a side street. While NLI’s distribution outages can usually be isolated to a few members or back fed to minimize the disruption—similar to road work on a side street. Outages in BPA’s transmission network have far greater impacts.
NLI has had a higher-than-normal number of outages scheduled by BPA over the past few months. In September, we had 2 scheduled overnight outages: 1 impacting 3,600 members in the Priest Lake area and another affecting 650 members in the Troy area. Both required BPA to de-energize components at its substations to safely do maintenance work. These outages were scheduled at night to minimize the impact. When possible, these types of outages are planned during milder weather so heating or cooling is not as much of a concern. Although we know it still impacts members, the outage being overnight does limit the impact on day-to-day life, as many people are sleeping while the outage occurs.
BPA coordinates these outages with NLI. At times, NLI can request adjustments to schedules or days. BPA would prefer to do them during the day, but NLI typically asks BPA to schedule them at night. Sometimes other utilities are also impacted and the outages are coordinated and scheduled among multiple utilities. NLI is able to route power to other substations in some of the areas where BPA schedules outages. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all locations, such as the Troy and Priest Lake areas.
When these outages are scheduled, NLI’s distribution system, and some substation components, are also de-energized. NLI takes advantage of BPA’s scheduled overnight outages to work on our own system. During the September outages, NLI crews worked all night.
NLI sends notifications by phone to our members impacted by planned outages. If you are not receiving these notifications, make sure your phone number is up to date on your account. NLI also posts large planned outages on our website and social media.
To prepare for an overnight outage, make sure your garage door or gate can function without power. If not, consider leaving a car parked outside. If you have medical needs that require power, plan to stay somewhere else or have backup power, such as a battery or generator.
Consider shutting down and unplugging equipment that could be impacted by the power going out and coming back on. Keep in mind that power outages can happen anytime without notice. However, NLI will let you know about planned outages.
NLI appreciates our members’ patience and understanding during these outages. This work improves the reliability and safety of the electric grid for NLI’s members and BPA’s other customers.
Northern Lights Engineering & Operations Manager Kristin Mettke is an electrical engineer and has worked in the electric utility industry most of her career.
