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Wyoming Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff event update

🔺March 14, 7:25 p.m. MT – Power has been restored to nearly all of the approximately 370 customers impacted by today’s Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff event in the Harriman and Curt Gowdy areas.

We appreciate our customers’ patience, and the partnership of our emergency management personnel, as we worked throughout the day to help keep our customers and communities safe. While conditions have improved and the PSPS Warning has ended, we will continue to monitor conditions.

For more information about Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS), visit blackhillsenergy.com/psps.

 

🔺March 14, 5 p.m. MT – Weather conditions leading to elevated fire risk in the Harriman and Curt Gowdy areas have improved and it is now safe for our crews to begin patrolling lines in the areas to make any repairs and begin safely restoring power to approximately 370 customers impacted by today’s Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff.

“Our restoration process prioritizes health, safety, and essential community services,” said Wes Ashton, vice president of South Dakota and Wyoming Utilities. “While some steps can occur in parallel, all efforts are designed to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.”

Restoration process following an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff:

  • Inspect – Our crews will inspect potential damage to electrical equipment in the shutoff area.
  • Repair – If damaged equipment is found, crews will work to isolate the damaged area from the rest of the system so other parts of the system can be restored.
  • Restore – Once power lines are safe to energize, we will complete the process and restore power to affected areas with priority given to essential facilities.

Important safety reminders 

  • If you see downed powerlines, stay away and call 911. 
  • Once power has been restored, check household equipment and gradually turn on essential items.

For more information on an Emergency PSPS visit blackhillsenergy.com/psps.

 

🔺March 14, 3 p.m. MT – Hazardous wind gusts and low relative humidity are creating dangerous fire conditions today. To protect public safety, we have expanded the Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) to the Harriman area west of Cheyenne in addition to the Curt Gowdy area, totaling approximately 370 customers. The city of Cheyenne is not impacted. Power will be out until conditions improve and it is safe to re-energize power lines serving these areas.

We recognize that shutting off power, even to reduce wildfire risks, has broad impacts and will provide as much advance notice as possible through social media, email, text messages, phone calls and our website.

Please make sure your contact information is up to date so you can receive these notifications. As a reminder, you can add additional contacts to receive safety notifications in your online account.

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

 

🔺March 14, 12:30 p.m. MT – Hazardous wind gusts and low relative humidity are creating dangerous fire conditions today. To protect public safety, we have implemented an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) for approximately 300 customers in the Curt Gowdy area. The Harriman area is still under a PSPS warning. The city of Cheyenne is not impacted. Power will be out until conditions improve and it is safe to re-energize power lines serving these areas.

“We recognize that shutting off power, even to reduce wildfire risks, has broad impacts,” said Wes Ashton, vice president of South Dakota and Wyoming Utilities. “We will work as quickly as possible to restore power when it is safe to do so.”

We have pre-staged crews in impacted areas to expedite the restoration process. Once hazardous fire weather conditions have passed, our crews will patrol power lines to inspect that they are safe to be re-energized.

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

 

🔺March 14, 10 a.m. MT – Because of changing weather conditions, we have updated the window of the Public Safety Power Shutoff Warning to between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. The PSPS warning is in effect for approximately 350 customers in the Harriman and Curt Gowdy areas, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

We will continue to keep impacted customers informed throughout this PSPS event through text messages, emails, and phone calls.

Important safety reminders

Learn more about Black Hills Energy’s Public Safety Power Shutoff program at blackhillsenergy.com/psps.

 

🔺 March 14, 7:30 a.m. MT – Hazardous wind gusts and extremely dry conditions are creating very dangerous fire conditions today. To protect public safety, we have issued an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff Warning to approximately 350 customers in the Harriman and Curt Gowdy areas, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. This means that power could be proactively turned off for customers in these areas from noon to 5 p.m. unless conditions change, to protect public safety and prevent wildfire.

We have pre-stage crews in impacted areas to expedite the restoration process. Once hazardous fire weather conditions have passed, our crews will patrol power lines to ensure they are safe to be re-energized. The restoration process is estimated to take a few hours.

Customers outside the active Public Safety Power Shutoff 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. Outages may last longer than usual since we’ll need to inspect the lines to make sure they can be re-energized safely.

Important safety reminders

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

 

🔺 March 13, 5 p.m. MT – Due to high fire-risk conditions in Saturday’s forecast and throughout the weekend, we have declared an Emergency Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) Watch for the Harriman and Curt Gowdy areas, west of Cheyenne, Wyoming. The PSPS Watch will be in effect starting on Friday, March 13, at 5 p.m. This means that if conditions persist, we may need to temporarily shut off power to approximately 350 customers in these areas midday Saturday 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.

We will notify impacted customers with a variety of methods including text messages, phone calls, emails and through local media.

 

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.