SUMMIT CO., Utah — As a last resort to mitigate fire risk, some residents in Summit County may experience a Public Safety Power Shutoff over the course of the coming days.
“I think we’d all agree we’d rather have a brief outage if conditions are volatile versus any kind of risk of wildfire," said Rocky Mountain Power Spokesperson Spencer Hall. "You many not experience anything but if you do experience an outage just know that that’s the power company watching the conditions and trying to protect the community.”
Hall says Rocky Mountain Power customers in the Sundance and Summit Park communities should have received notification about a potential power cut.
Roughly 600 customers reside in the Sundance community with nearly 1,200 in Summit Park. The power cut would only come as a last resort during a 'weather event' that could cause a public safety concern pertaining to wildfire.
Rocky Mountain Power is monitoring weather conditions (low humidity, dry vegetation and high winds) that could meet the criteria for a Public Safety Power Shutoff.
Originally, RMP noted that Wednesday and Thursday are days of concern with those specific conditions, however, it's believed that those conditions will continue thru the weekend.
“Even though it’s calm down in the valley, in these mountain communities it can get windy real quick and so when that wind picks up and it’s really dry and conditions are such that a fire can start, those are the ones we want to watch out for,” said Hall.
Rocky Mountain Power introduced the idea of a power shutoff last year after working on utilities in 'high wildfire risk' areas or communities that fall within the Wildfire Urban Interface.
“Traditionally we’re out of wildfire season by this point but this year we’ve seen you know with that Range Fire in Provo that these conditions can move quickly, we’re still in a critical time," said Hall, noting that any outage would be short-term to de-energize lines and wait for weather conditions to change.
Customers who live in these areas and did not receive a notification should check their contact setting within their Rocky Mountain Power account.
