Rocky Mountain Power to have planned outages amid heatwave

SALT LAKE CITY — Rocky Mountain Power will have planned outages to work on maintenance in the next few weeks, which will happen during record-breaking heat. The company said the outages are necessary.

Outages are planned to be around 4 to 9 p.m. Anyone in the area of a planned outage will be alerted at least 24 hours ahead of time so they can plan ahead. But, there have been some concerns expressed over having planned power outages during a time of extreme heat.

Dave Eskelson with RMP said the company would only be doing planned outages that are urgent and necessary.

“We have deferred a lot of projects that can be deferred because of the hot weather. But some outages really shouldn’t wait because you run the risk of waiting until something breaks seriously and it could be a bigger outage and take longer to fix,” Eskelsen said.

Eskelson said that these outages can’t be done at night due to crew safety, and added that doing projects at night increases risks.

“A lot of the work that we do on maintenance is done with the system energized. But some work can’t be done safely [while] energized, and so we have to cut the power so our crews can work safely,” Eskelson said.

The company suggested people prepare for planned outages by getting together an outage kit, cooling the house beforehand and keeping fridges shut to keep food cool.

Eskelson also suggested “[Preparing] alternative ways of preparing food or easily prepared food that you can have available during an outage. Also, use the nighttime cooling by opening your windows, using fans, using drapes strategically when there’s going to be a planned outage.”

The Rocky Mountain Power website has additional tips on how to prepare for a power outage.

Related: Weber Schools move to early out after complaints of heat exhaustion