May 16, 2018 — As much of the region continues to experience a bought of dry and windy weather, Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA) has put in effect its fire prevention procedures. The precautionary measures rely more heavily on fieldwork by operations personnel and less on the use of DMEA’s automated and remotely controlled equipment. This special mode of operations greatly reduces the risk of a fire being started by electrical equipment but does come with ramifications: DMEA members who may have grown accustomed to limited and relatively short outages, may find that power outages last longer than under normal conditions.
“Our fire precaution procedures can extend the length of power outages in some cases. For instance, under normal circumstances, we can reconnect equipment remotely from our office. In fire prevention mode, we require our crew members to have eyes on the equipment before any attempt at restoration. This reduces our fire risk, but does take more time,” explained Troy Hall, DMEA Operations Manager.
DMEA asks for member patience and, when necessary, cooperation. It’s especially important for members to report any issues or damage to DMEA immediately. In many cases, a single phone call can save hours of searching by helping the co-op narrow its focus and pinpoint the cause of an outage. DMEA asks members who observe anything that seems out of the ordinary concerning power lines or power equipment to:
1) first and foremost–stay clear of the area in question;
2) call DMEA’s main line at 877-687-3632 to report the situation.
“Providing safe and reliable power to our members is our number one priority. But, outages will happen and members should always be prepared – weather, wildlife, cars hitting poles, and the like can all result in outages,” said Hall. “We ask for our members’ patience and assistance as we reduce fire risk and hopefully get through this time safely.”
DMEA will return to normal operating procedures when the fire danger rating decreases to a safe level.
DMEA is a rural electric cooperative, located in Montrose, Colorado serving approximately 33,000 residential, commercial and industrial meters, on more than 3,000 miles of power lines. DMEA has been powering the lives of its members since 1938 with the mission to energize and serve our communities. Learn more about the value of cooperative membership at dmea.com or by calling 877-687-3632.
