Potential power outages in the Black Hills and what they could mean to the community

Yahoo

2 days ago

Rapid City, S.D. (KELO) — Black Hills Energy is planning to roll out a Public Safety Power Shutoff program, which could lead to utilities and power outages in the Black Hills.
Machinery fire at Sioux Falls Arrowhead Parkway project
The goal of Black Hills Energy's Public Safety Power Shutoff program is to avoid causing or spreading a wildfire.
'What we would do is essentially be watching out weather reports, look at our data of our real-time mapping, then we'd make a decision on if there is an extreme situation. We would actually power down portions of our system until the weather conditions warranted a safe return,' Black Hills Energy Vice President of Utilities Wes Ashton said.
While it may sound like a simple solution, Pennington County's Emergency Manager questions whether it's necessary.
Their director says that in the last decade, just 1.3% of the county's fires were started directly by utilities.
'How many additional problems are we going to create in our communities by shutting off the power? And we have to balance that against the probabilities and the potential consequences of wildland urban interface fires that may be caused by utilities,' Pennington County Emergency Management Director Dustin Willett said.
Black Hills Energy says the program is a precaution and doesn't guarantee there will be outages.
'The situation would accrue under our historical model, sometimes never in a year. Some years it could happen one or two times and the most we've ever seen under our historical modeling was an event happening three times a year,' Ashton said.
Before any outages, Willett wants more time to educate those potentially affected, including Black Hills businesses.
'You're not able to operate points of sale, no gas being pumped. So your businesses, your restaurants, aren't able to cook or prepare food. Your hotels don't have air conditioning in their rooms or power for their guests. So the economic impact may be devastating for some communities depending on when and where these shutdowns occur,' Willett said.
People who receive their services from the Co-Ops in the area will not be affected by these potential outages.
Pennington County Emergency Management is currently working on educational pieces to better prepare those who could be affected if power outages happen for long periods of time.
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