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South Dakota Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff event update

🔺Feb. 17, 2:10 p.m. MT – We are continuing to monitor rapidly changing weather conditions today and have expanded the Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) Warning to include areas south of the City of Custer. While the warning area has expanded, weather forecasts indicate the highest risk for PSPS impacts in the most southern, rural areas of the Southern Hills, including Argyle, portions of Hot Springs, Buffalo Gap, Edgemont, Provo and Ardmore.  

Customers outside of the active PSPS impact area may also experience outages due to high winds, enhanced protection settings on our lines that help prevent wildfire ignitions when a fault is detected, or other factors.

For information about the areas impacted by today’s PSPS, visit blackhillsenergy.com/outages.  

🔺Feb. 17, 10:30 a.m. MT – Hazardous wind gusts and extremely dry conditions are creating very dangerous and rapidly changing fire conditions today. To protect safety, we have issued Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff Warning notifications to customers in areas of Argyle, portions of Hot Springs, Edgemont, Provo and Ardmore in the Southern Hills. Unless conditions change, we will proactively de-energize power lines in these areas beginning at 1 p.m. today, Feb. 17. Hazardous fire weather conditions for this Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) are forecasted from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.    

We’ve also expanded the Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) Watch to now include areas south of Custer. 

For information about the areas impacted by today’s PSPS, visit blackhillsenergy.com/outages.

🔺Feb. 16, 4 p.m. MT – Due to high fire-risk conditions in Tuesday’s forecast from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Black Hills Energy has issued an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff Watch for rural areas around Edgemont, Provo and Ardmore in the Southern Black Hills.  

This means that if conditions persist, the company may need to temporarily shut off power to approximately 180 customers in these areas on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to mitigate the risk of electrical infrastructure becoming a source of wildfire ignition. Customers under the PSPS Watch declaration are urged to prepare for the possibility of emergency power outages needed to protect public safety and prevent wildfire. 

“The safety of our customers, employees and communities is our highest priority,” said Wes Ashton, vice president of South Dakota and Wyoming Utilities. “Our Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff program, or PSPS, is a critical tool for wildfire prevention and used as a last-resort measure to protect lives and property and will only be activated in areas with elevated wildfire risk.”  

“We recognize that shutting off power, even to reduce wildfire risks, has broad impacts,” said Ashton. “We will do our best to provide as much advance notice as possible if an emergency power shutoff is likely to occur, by issuing a PSPS Warning and getting power restored as safe to do so, once conditions have concluded.”  

Black Hills Energy will notify impacted customers throughout the weather event with a variety of methods including text messages, phone calls, and emails and through local media. The company will also provide updates on the Black Hills Energy website to help keep the public informed throughout the PSPS event.

 

How to stay informed

  • Customers can see if they’re in an impacted area at blackhillsenergy.com/outages.
  • We’ll continue to provide updates to this webpage and through media outlets. Customers are encouraged to make sure their contact information is up to date to receive phone calls, emails and text messages.

How you can prepare 

  • Visit blackhillsenergy.com/my-account to keep your contact information up to date, so we can provide safety notifications and direct you to our website for helpful tips and resources.
  • Have a backup plan for medicine that needs to be refrigerated or medical equipment that is powered by electricity. This could mean finding a place to go during an outage or having a backup generator.   
  • Build an emergency kit and plan and share with friends and neighbors.
  • If you see downed powerlines, stay away and call 911.