The frequent power outages that Castle Valley — and the surrounding area — has been experiencing lately are likely to last throughout the summer, according to Dan Vink, the district manager for Rocky Mountain Power.
Ron Drake
Vink met with the Castle Valley Town Council during their monthly meeting last Thursday, June 20 to explain the reason for the power outages and answer questions from the council and audience. And it so happened that Vink entered a dark council chamber because the power had gone out 15 minutes before the beginning of the meeting for about the fourth time in five days.
Vink explained that Rocky Mountain Power mandates enhanced safety settings on power lines when fire risk is high to reduce the potential for equipment to start a fire. If the power line comes in contact with debris, for instance, it will deactivate within fractions of a second to eliminate sparks. As a result, customers may experience more frequent outages because of these enhanced settings.
Rocky Mountain Power has nine meteorologists on staff and numerous weather stations to monitor for elevated fire risk conditions like high temperatures, windy weather and dry or dead vegetation and adjust their settings accordingly. When an outage occurs, the linemen are required to inspect the entire 140-mile Rattlesnake line for damage and make necessary repairs before restoring power.
The power outage on Sunday, June 16 was caused by strong winds, which caused lines to slap together in the Westwater area followed by birds on Monday and Tuesday, including one in Castle Valley, and a lightning strike in Pack Creek caused the outage on Thursday evening. Twelve linemen patrolled the entire circuit all night Tuesday to check for problems before energizing the entire line.
The utility is constantly improving the system, which will improve service over time. For instance, a new substation at the bottom of Blue Hill south of Moab has been installed and it will stabilize the voltage to Castle Valley during the summertime peak. That is why the backup generator located on Pace Hill was removed last spring.
The generator was never meant to provide power for the entire town during power outages but it was designed to supplement voltage during the hot summer months when air conditioners were running at capacity to cool homes. The new substation negated the need for the generator, which was never activated during the two years it was located there.
Sensitive equipment used to detect wildfire risk causes frequent power outages in the Castle Valley area. Photo by Ron Drake
In the next four to five weeks RMP will bring a second feed line to Castle Valley, which will enable the linemen to isolate Castle Valley and restore power quicker. However, the long-term plan is to construct a new substation east of Castle Valley and feed it with a large transmission line that is not as susceptible to weather and bird problems as the current distribution line. “It is a fine line,” Vink said about the power service Thursday night “between keeping the rates low and providing reliable service.” They want to ensure our safety, especially when wildfire risk is high.
Electricity in Castle Valley has always been an issue. A conversation I had with the former Times-Independent publisher Sam Taylor nearly 30 years ago comes to mind: Not that many years ago, the Telluride Electric Company served southwestern Colorado’s rural areas in conjunction with the Rural Electrical Association (REA), a government agency funded by government grants.
Puge Stocks of La Sal and other farmers wanted Telluride Electric to extend their lines into Utah. An obscure Utah law, however, did not allow competing power companies to cross Utah Power’s lines, thus eliminating their chances to get electricity.
Stocks approached the newly-appointed, 30-year-old State Sen. Sam Taylor about their plight. Sam saw the need and decided to introduce legislation to reverse the law, knowing it would be a very unpopular bill among his Republican colleagues, as they were generally against federally subsidized projects.
He took intense heat from then-Gov. George D. Clyde, the senate majority leader and his Republican cohorts, but he stuck to his guns. There were 13 Republican and 12 Democratic legislators in the senate at the time and when the vote was taken, Sam and the 12 Democrats passed the bill.
Soon after, a 125-mile line was constructed from Colorado to La Sal via Castle Valley by the REA and Castle Valley started receiving the much-needed electrical power from the Telluride Electric Company. That arrangement lasted until the early 1970s when Utah Power bought Telluride Electric and eventually Rocky Mountain Power took over Utah Power.
Today, that same ungraded line that originally lit up a handful of ranch houses now services hundreds of people from La Sal to Cisco. Our power now originates from the Rattlesnake substation southwest of La Sal and travels over the top of the mountain, over Porcupine Rim to Castleton then to Castle Valley and beyond and is still the longest line in their system.
RMP manager sheds light on Castle Valley electrical woes
By Ron Drake
The frequent power outages that Castle Valley — and the surrounding area — has been experiencing lately are likely to last throughout the summer, according to Dan Vink, the district manager for Rocky Mountain Power.
Vink met with the Castle Valley Town Council during their monthly meeting last Thursday, June 20 to explain the reason for the power outages and answer questions from the council and audience. And it so happened that Vink entered a dark council chamber because the power had gone out 15 minutes before the beginning of the meeting for about the fourth time in five days.
Vink explained that Rocky Mountain Power mandates enhanced safety settings on power lines when fire risk is high to reduce the potential for equipment to start a fire. If the power line comes in contact with debris, for instance, it will deactivate within fractions of a second to eliminate sparks. As a result, customers may experience more frequent outages because of these enhanced settings.
Rocky Mountain Power has nine meteorologists on staff and numerous weather stations to monitor for elevated fire risk conditions like high temperatures, windy weather and dry or dead vegetation and adjust their settings accordingly. When an outage occurs, the linemen are required to inspect the entire 140-mile Rattlesnake line for damage and make necessary repairs before restoring power.
The power outage on Sunday, June 16 was caused by strong winds, which caused lines to slap together in the Westwater area followed by birds on Monday and Tuesday, including one in Castle Valley, and a lightning strike in Pack Creek caused the outage on Thursday evening. Twelve linemen patrolled the entire circuit all night Tuesday to check for problems before energizing the entire line.
The utility is constantly improving the system, which will improve service over time. For instance, a new substation at the bottom of Blue Hill south of Moab has been installed and it will stabilize the voltage to Castle Valley during the summertime peak. That is why the backup generator located on Pace Hill was removed last spring.
The generator was never meant to provide power for the entire town during power outages but it was designed to supplement voltage during the hot summer months when air conditioners were running at capacity to cool homes. The new substation negated the need for the generator, which was never activated during the two years it was located there.
Sensitive equipment used to detect wildfire risk causes frequent power outages in the Castle Valley area. Photo by Ron Drake
In the next four to five weeks RMP will bring a second feed line to Castle Valley, which will enable the linemen to isolate Castle Valley and restore power quicker. However, the long-term plan is to construct a new substation east of Castle Valley and feed it with a large transmission line that is not as susceptible to weather and bird problems as the current distribution line. “It is a fine line,” Vink said about the power service Thursday night “between keeping the rates low and providing reliable service.” They want to ensure our safety, especially when wildfire risk is high.
Electricity in Castle Valley has always been an issue. A conversation I had with the former Times-Independent publisher Sam Taylor nearly 30 years ago comes to mind: Not that many years ago, the Telluride Electric Company served southwestern Colorado’s rural areas in conjunction with the Rural Electrical Association (REA), a government agency funded by government grants.
Puge Stocks of La Sal and other farmers wanted Telluride Electric to extend their lines into Utah. An obscure Utah law, however, did not allow competing power companies to cross Utah Power’s lines, thus eliminating their chances to get electricity.
Stocks approached the newly-appointed, 30-year-old State Sen. Sam Taylor about their plight. Sam saw the need and decided to introduce legislation to reverse the law, knowing it would be a very unpopular bill among his Republican colleagues, as they were generally against federally subsidized projects.
He took intense heat from then-Gov. George D. Clyde, the senate majority leader and his Republican cohorts, but he stuck to his guns. There were 13 Republican and 12 Democratic legislators in the senate at the time and when the vote was taken, Sam and the 12 Democrats passed the bill.
Soon after, a 125-mile line was constructed from Colorado to La Sal via Castle Valley by the REA and Castle Valley started receiving the much-needed electrical power from the Telluride Electric Company. That arrangement lasted until the early 1970s when Utah Power bought Telluride Electric and eventually Rocky Mountain Power took over Utah Power.
Today, that same ungraded line that originally lit up a handful of ranch houses now services hundreds of people from La Sal to Cisco. Our power now originates from the Rattlesnake substation southwest of La Sal and travels over the top of the mountain, over Porcupine Rim to Castleton then to Castle Valley and beyond and is still the longest line in their system.