City of Talent getting action after more than 40 outages this year, Pacific Power says - KDRV

City of Talent getting action after more than 40 outages this year, Pacific Power says | Top Stories | kdrv.com
Pacific Power has outlined a plan to help the City of Talent after it has experienced more than 40 outages this year.

TALENT, Ore. -- Pacific Power has outlined a plan to help the City of Talent after it has experienced more than 40 outages this year.

According to a news release from the power company, there have been 40 outages as of Aug. 19. They say this is due to safety settings that are turned on in case of wildfires, but also make power lines more sensitive to outages.

"We help reduce wildfire risk by applying Enhanced Safety Settings on our equipment," Pacific Power said in a news release. "These settings help prevent ignitions that could lead to wildfires by de-energizing equipment within fractions of a second if a fault occurs -- i.e., if vegetation, animals or debris contact a power line. ...In Talent, which is in a fire high consequence area with elevated wildfire risk, Enhanced Safety Settings have been turned on for all circuits since June 2024."

Pacific Power says they are doing three things to address the continuous outages:

- Updating equipment connected to Talent
- Reviewing settings and "risk level[s]" for Talent customers
- Improving how they respond to outages and communicate with their customers.

However, the company says outages will still most likely be common.

"During wildfire season you may experience more frequent and alrger-than-typical outages as our field personnel work to confirm that power can be safely turned back on," the release said.

Pacific Power encourages customers to plan ahead and, if you have medical devices that rely on electricity, make a plan with a medical provider for backup power.

For resources, call Pacific Power's customer service team at 1-888-221-7070, the release said. To share feedback with the company, email outagefeedback@pacificorp.com.