As the winter storm continues to move through the region, La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) has fortunately experienced relatively minor snow-related outages across its service territory in La Plata and Archuleta counties – given the volume of snow.
At this writing, crews are attending to nine individual outages impacting 138 customers. (LPEA serves more than 42,000 meters.) The largest outages at this time are 56 customers out of power at 590 CR 505 (La Plata County) and 53 customers out of power at 75 Oldham's Place (Archuleta County).
As the temperature warms into the afternoon, and the moisture content in the snow increases, the chance for outages grows. Snow accumulated on power lines and trees will begin to unload, potentially causing momentary “blinks” as the system analyzes and resets. Also, as the weight of the snow increases, branches and trees may be brought down, impacting lines. In the event of an outage, LPEA members are encouraged to call 247-5786.
