Idaho Power crews working to prevent outages this winter

All the snow and storms this winter are keeping plenty of city crews busy, including power crews.

Idaho Power in Pocatello said it’s been a busy winter for its crews. Mark Lupo, community relations specialist with Idaho Power, said the Pocatello region is responsible for the Pocatello, American Falls and Blackfoot areas. He said they have four crews and eight trouble men that are on call 24-7. He said all crews have been putting in a lot of hours this winter.

Lupo said they’ve had several major power outages so far this winter. But he said what they’re seeing this year, is that the storms aren’t the cause of outages directly.

“We’ve had outages because of the slide-offs that we’ve had,” Lupo said. “Car versus pole accidents and things like that happening – more than the storms.”

Idaho Power said typically its biggest problems with winter storms are strong winds and ice on on the lines. Those two things together can cause lines to hit together or freeze up, cutting off power. He said they have had a few problems with that, but not as many as the slide-offs.

The company said crews are always monitoring substations and equipment to try and prevent outages.

“We’re patrolling our lines constantly,” Lupo said. “By helicopter, on foot, trucks, ATVs – we’re out there looking for problems that could occur.”

Lupo said something else the company has seen a lot of this winter is community support and cooperation. He said the community has been really positive and appreciative and that makes a difference for the crews.

“I’ve read so many neat comments that people are saying thank you to the crews, the Idaho Power crews, for getting our power back on as quickly as they did,” Lupo said. “So we really appreciate that.”

Lupo said the company understands power outages are an inconvenience and the crews do the best they can to get power back online quickly. He said the company also does everything it can to take preventative measures for outages. Lupo said it can’t anticipate everything and sometimes the problem just takes awhile to fix.

But he said the community can help. You can call 1-800-488-6151 and report outages to make sure the company is aware of the problem. You can also check this website to see what outages are reported and which ones crews are working on.

As for power outages, the company had one interesting suggestion for those planning to leave town for the winter or even for a long period of time. Lupo said to take a cup, fill it water and freeze it. Then, once it’s frozen, take a coin and drop on top. Put that in the freezer while you’re gone. When you come back, if the water level has receded or the coin has sunk to the bottom, that means it melted. That tells you that the power was off for a significant amount of time, which means your freezer stopped working and things in it thawed.

Other tips and advice for the winter can be found on Idaho Power’s website.