KWSO News for Wed., Aug. 4, 2021

The Warm Springs community COVID-19 Update on Tuesday (8/3/21) reported 1 new case of COVID-19 from 39 tests conducted Monday, August 2, 2021 at the Health & Wellness Center.  There was 1 positive case reported by an outside facility. There are currently 3 people with active COVID-19 and 1 close contact receiving daily monitoring. If you would like to be tested for COVID-19 – check in at the front gate at the Warm Springs Health & Wellness Center and they will direct you where to go. There have been a total of 891 cases of COVID-19 in Warm Springs since the Pandemic Began. There is an upswing in COVID-19 cases mostly for unvaccinated individuals.  The main thing you can do to protect from getting COVID-19 is to be vaccinated.

This week, Chico Holliday was selected as the new General Manager for the Public Utilities Department for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

Oregon has adopted emergency rules meant to protect workers from wildfire smoke and shield workers living in labor housing from extreme heat. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the rules will go into effect on Aug. 9 for six months. The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health administration is working on adopting permanent rules this fall. The agency is also working on permanent standards to protect workers in labor housing. The new rules require that employers make an effort, whenever feasible, to change work schedules or relocate work when air quality levels reach 201, which is considered very unhealthy. If employees will be exposed to air quality levels above 201, employers must ensure that workers wear N95 respirators.

Last week, Governor Kate Brown announced that she is directing The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to develop a rule aligning to CDC recommendations regarding requiring masks indoors for K-12 schools during the 2021-2022 school year. The Jefferson County 509-J School District says it will continue to strongly advise face coverings, but not require them of staff and students when indoors at this time as they learn more about the rule-making process and the timeline for implementation of the rule being developed in the days to come depending on the latest guidance from ODE and OHA. You can see the 509J COVID-19 Guidance Update here.

The Jefferson County School District says it is building upon the successes in alternative education options offered at Bridges High School. The redesign is meant to give students the opportunity to get more hands on, real world education, the district announced in a letter to parents on Tuesday. Bridges will provide numerous opportunities to students so they can engage in thematic learning that will have real world application, smaller classes, flexible scheduling, and hands on learning. Any Junior or Senior looking for an alternative choice can apply to attend Bridges High School.  Applications to attend Bridges this fall will be available in the next couple weeks. Starting in the Fall, Bridges will increase the teaching staff to better serve the needs of students. There will be a mixture of both online and in-person classes offered to students. Bridges will also still be offering credit recovery opportunities. More details about the Bridges High School Alternative Education Redesign is available here.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission has responded to numerous complaints regarding Pacific Power’s electrical infrastructure in Warm Springs neighborhoods and several recent power outages. The following is taken from the response provided to customers who contacted the Oregon Public Utility Commission with complaints following the recent outages:

Thank you for contacting the Oregon Public Utility Commission regarding Pacific Power’s electrical infrastructure in your neighborhood. I received several complaints from your neighborhood, and I will be responding to each with the same information.

I reached out to the company’s executive office with your concerns. I asked about outages in your area over the last year and the most recent outages were due to a vehicle accident and a deteriorating or rotting underground primary cable. I asked for a one-year outage history in your area and was informed there were 12-15 outages depending on the customer address. As for the duration of the outages, underground outages generally take longer to repair than an overhead outage. The location of the fault needs to be identified and isolated. To access the line, the area is excavated or if applicable, pulled through a conduit.

Another contributing factor of the duration of the outages is the Company’s Wildfire Mitigation Program (WMP). Warm Springs is a high-risk area for wildfire. One of the measures was to reset the sensitivity of reclosers. Reclosers detect voltage disturbances on the line and will automatically open to protect the system from voltage fluctuations.

Typically, a recloser will attempt to close sensing whether the cause of the disturbance has cleared the line. If the voltage is still off, the recloser will lock open and a lineman will be dispatched to patrol the line and manually close the circuit. An example is that a branch may fall on the line, cause a temporary voltage fluctuation, and fall to the ground. When the recloser is open, a momentary outage occurs. The recloser was designed to check whether the cause of the disruption has cleared and reclose automatically if the voltage has stabilized.

Due to the WMP, the settings on reclosers were changed to keep the line de-energized until it can be patrolled and closed by a lineman. It is less automated, requires action by the employee, and adds a layer of protection from ignitions. The downside is customers will experience more outages, and in some cases, longer outages. This is one of the many actions taken as part of the WMP. Moving forward, the company will be sectionalizing the area and if a recloser opens and requires an employee to inspect the line prior to closing it, fewer customers will be impacted.

Outages on the circuit can also cause recloser activity. When the underground line began to fault, reclosers opened and remained open until the work was completed, the overhead lines on the circuit were patrolled, and the reclosers reset. This led to a longer outage for faulty equipment. It was a combination of equipment failure and WMP safety measures.

I asked Pacific Power if they have any projects planned for your area to increase reliability. Their executive office informed me they intend to replace the failed equipment next year. Also to reduce the impact of the WMP on system reliability, on July 28, 2021, communicating faulted circuit indicators were installed on overhead lines to expedite locating the source of outages and line patrol which in turn will expedite power restoration times.

They may implement other measures also, such as additional field reclosers placed in strategic locations to isolate specific areas; reducing the number of customers potentially impacted by an outage.  These measures also improve fault locating and outage restoration capabilities. Substation relay replacement is another way to enable new fault detection and programming technology for improved fault locating and fault clearing capabilities. The work is intended to balance wildfire safety along with reliability by reducing the number of customers impacted and the outage restoration times.

Thank you for bringing this issue to the Commission’s attention.  Both the Commission and the utilities are working together to find a balance between wildfire mitigation, and outage concerns.  If you are interested in further information regarding wildfire mitigation, there is information on our website here:  https://www.oregon.gov/puc/safety/Pages/Power-Outage-Prep.aspx.  You can also view previous meetings regarding these issues here:  https://www.oregon.gov/puc/news-events/Pages/default.aspx  Scroll down to Event Archives and you will find meetings regarding wildfire and vegetation management.  A few of the dates are March 10, May 18 and June 3^rd.  There is video of the meeting on the far right of the date to view the meeting. 

If you have any other questions please let me know. 

Sincerely,

Richard Bontrager

Compliance Specialist

Oregon Public Utility Commission

Consumer Services Section

(503) 378-6600 or toll free 1-800-522-2404