Power Restoration Process
PrintBringing Power Back After a Storm
Northern Lights, Inc. recently experienced 2 major outage events lasting several days for some members. When these types of events hit our service area, it is an all-hands-on-deck effort to make power lines safe and restore power for Northern Lights’ members. All available linemen, dispatchers, engineering technicians, and supervisors come to work during these storm events, no matter the time of day or day of the week.
When it comes to what gets fixed first, there are general priorities we follow. Transmission line outages cause widespread outages across large areas. Transmission lines are mostly owned by another utility that provides transmission service to NLI. During the March windstorm, Bonneville Power Administration experienced an outage on its transmission line running from the Samuels, Idaho, area to Troy, Montana. This caused an outage for many NLI members. BPA owns and operates transmission lines across a large geographical area, and it can take some time for its crew to arrive and remove a tree from a line or make a repair. NLI crews often spot the trouble first and let BPA know the location of the problem area.
During wind events, if a transmission line goes out first or early, it is difficult to know what NLI equipment is also damaged. Members lose power from the transmission line being out, but trees may fall on NLI lines in an area already without power. Once the transmission line is back in service, we may not know that a tree fell on a section of the distribution line. If you see damage, whether it is trees in lines, broken poles, broken crossarms, or power lines in the road, call us to report the location. As a reminder, always stay away from downed power lines and trees on lines. The line could still be energized and dangerous.
As for distribution line outages, we focus on clearing blocked roadways first. This may mean just ensuring the line is dead and cutting it while clearing the road. Crews may make repairs right away or come back later after addressing other damage areas. Crews usually first attend to areas with the largest outages. If you are wondering when crews might get to your location, it is worth looking at the NLI outage map, publicweb.nli.coop, to see how many others around you are also without power.
If a larger outage is due to a broken pole, it can take hours to fix. Dispatch calls in an underground locate to 811 and waits until other underground utilities are located before we can replace the pole. It can take a few hours to get an emergency locate. Once the crews are clear to work, it can take another few hours to replace the pole, depending on location, terrain and configuration of lines on the pole.
In some cases, NLI supervisors will call in contract or mutual-aid crews to help replace a large number of broken poles. During the storm in December, NLI had more than 50 broken poles, and in March, there were more than 40 broken poles. During both wind events, NLI brought in line contractors and mutual-aid crews from nearby utilities to help.
NLI would rather not have these types of outage events, and we know our members feel the same way. We are thankful for our members’ patience and information provided during these types of events.
Northern Lights Engineering and Operations Manager Kristin Burge is an electrical engineer and has worked in the electric utility industry for most of her career.
