The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for North Central Washington, including the Methow Valley.
OCEC Operations has set all automated line reclosers, including the Substations, to “non-reclose” following our Wildfire Mitigation Plan Level “Red”.
Disabling reclosers, either in elevated fire risk or red flag conditions, has the effect of both lengthening the duration and increasing the number of outages while minimizing the risk of fire. A recloser is an automatic high-voltage electric switch that operates much like a circuit breaker in your home. When the reclosers are set on “non-reclose” the breaker will operate/open, and the line will be de-energized until OCEC crews can manually inspect the entire line for problems. Once the line has been manually inspected and is confirmed to be all clear, the line will be re-energized. This will possibly create longer, more frequent outages during these times.
Taking these pro-active fire safety steps may cause more frequent and longer outages, but we hope that our membership will understand that the benefits of reduced fire risk outweigh the increase in possible outages.
For more information, please review our full Wildfire Mitigation Plan at www.ocec.coop.
To report an outage please call (509) 996-2228.