7.8.26 Outage & Fires Update

7.8.26 Outage cause update – Indications are that the cause of the transmission outage yesterday is the Xcel line tripped offline due to the heavy smoke in the Leadville area. Before re-energizing the line, the entire line needed to be patrolled to make sure it was safe to do so. The transmission line that feeds the Arkansas Valley runs from Leadville to Poncha Springs.

7.7.26

2 p.m. Update 

Good afternoon. We want to share an update on the widespread outage affecting members in Lake and Chaffee counties this morning. We understand that outages can be frustrating, unsettling, and difficult to navigate. We appreciated your patience as this outage was resolved.

• At 4:32 a.m., the Xcel Energy transmission line that SDCEA relies on to deliver power to members in Lake and Chaffee counties went offline.

• At 6:55 a.m. most of Chaffee County’s service was restored.

• Northern Chaffee County and Lake County power was fully restored by 9:30 a.m.

To clear up some confusion regarding why Xcel going offline took SDCEA offline, SDCEA contracts with wholesale power supplier Tri-State Generation and Transmission to provide power to distribute through our lines and infrastructure. Tri-State relies on Xcel’s transmission lines to deliver power to portions of Chaffee and Lake counties through what is called a wheeling agreement.

These types of agreements are standard practice across the nation’s electric grids. It is not practical or economically viable for every power supplier to build separate electric generation plants or lines into every service area, especially in more remote locations such as south-central Colorado.

Because these outages occur outside our system, and because many factors can influence restoration time such as weather, access to make repairs and the extent of potential equipment damage, we are unable to estimate transmission restoration times. We do share updates about transmission outages as soon as we are notified of them.

We have also had a few questions regarding regional fire impacts on our system. At this time, the SDCEA distribution system has not been directly impacted by these events. The Willow Fire burning in the Leadville area remains active but is currently 2.5 miles from the nearest SDCEA distribution system.

The Aspen Acres fire burning in Custer, Pueblo and Fremont Counties remains active and is currently five miles from the nearest SDCEA distribution system.

Our thoughts are with all emergency responders battling these fires, and with the residents affected by them. Thank you for your patience, and please check on neighbors who may need assistance.

We will continue to provide updates to our membership as information becomes available. If you have access to Facebook or can view our website, we provide outage updates on those channels when we have them. Or call our office at 844-395-2412. During periods of high call volume, it may be difficult to get through, but please know we are working diligently to restore power as quickly as possible during an outage.