The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Approximately 16 outages this summer as result of precautions…
by Mark Reaman
The warm, dry and often windy summer has Gunnison County and the nearby region primed for potential wildfires. The slightest spark could set off a chain reaction resulting in a damaging wildfire. The local electric company is aware of the situation, and it has implemented a policy to do what it can to avoid setting off a dangerous spark. But that has also resulted in ramifications for some Gunnison County Electric Association (GCEA) members.
The GCEA has placed its system in a so-called “non-reclose mode” which disables automatic power restoration when something triggers a quick outage, like a small animal triggering a fault. Under normal circumstances, such a situation would be handled automatically, and power might be out a few seconds. Now, a protective device shuts off power, and it remains off until a GCEA crew can safely inspect the line and manually restore service.
In an email to GCEA members, it was explained that “many of the outages we’ve experienced recently have been caused by small animals contacting electrical equipment — events that would normally result in only a brief interruption or might go unnoticed altogether.”
With non-reclose mode in place, every outage requires a crew to respond, inspect the equipment and verify that it is safe to re-energize the line before power can be restored. While this means outages may last longer and affect more members than they normally would, it significantly reduces the risk of electrical equipment producing sparks that could ignite a wildfire during hot, dry conditions.”
GCEA chief executive officer Mike McBride said this week that the co-op has had a total of 48 outages from the start of June when GCEA set its automatic breakers to non-reclose mode. GCEA estimates that about one-third of those outages resulted from non-reclose settings. McBride explained that most outages affect only a portion of the system and often a very small portion. “Using non-reclose settings is a long-standing GCEA practice for wildfire mitigation,” he said. “We have used this for decades. This year, the settings went into place on June 13. We monitor fire weather forecasts in addition to county fire bans and red flag warnings. Fire weather forecasts are based on a number of factors including dry conditions, temperature, humidity and wind.”
McBride said GCEA’s formal non-reclose procedures are as follows:
• Under normal operating conditions, protective devices on the system automatically attempt to restore power after a temporary fault, such as a small animal coming into contact with electrical equipment. In many cases, power is restored within seconds without the need for a crew to respond.
• When the system is operating in non-reclose mode, those automatic restoration attempts are disabled. Instead, the protective device shuts off power and remains off until a GCEA crew can safely inspect the line and manually restore service.
“Outages can affect all locations on GCEA’s system,” McBride said. “With respect to non-reclose settings, Mt. Crested Butte is not on non-reclose, because that line is entirely underground. Outage duration depends on where the ‘opened’ protection device is and how many miles of line need to be patrolled before the line can be re-energized, but it is typically only a few hours.”
Non-reclose settings are commonly used by other utilities. Some utilities, notably Xcel Energy have instigated public safety power shutoffs when high winds and dry conditions have increased the risk of wildfire. McBride said GCEA has not ever initiated a public safety power shutoff.
“We have not had a wildfire issue at GCEA,” said McBride. “That is something we are working hard to prevent. The Elk Fire, north of Lake City, did cause us concern this year as it approached both Tri-State and GCEA lines. Both Tri-State and GCEA took steps to protect that infrastructure. Fortunately, that fire is not growing at this time and has not reached any power lines.”
The GCEA email said that protecting the communities served by the co-op “requires balancing reliability with public safety…GCEA will continue operating in non-reclose mode until wildfire conditions improve and it is safe to return the system to normal operation.”
