Answers to ’What is a PSPS?’ and Other Customer Questions

By Idaho Power

Thunderstorms in eastern Oregon and western Idaho caused weather-related outages for thousands of customers this week and required us to call our first ever Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS). About 25,000 customers saw outages on Wednesday, around 9,000 of which were due to the PSPS. We thank you for your patience as we worked to safely restore power during the unprecedented heat.

We have received many questions due to recent weather and fire activity and wanted to provide some answers to the most frequent questions.

What is a PSPS and why would you implement one?
A PSPS is when a utility like Idaho Power proactively turns off power to an area where wildfire risk is high due to extreme weather conditions—particularly high winds. The outage is an effort to keep our communities safe and help prevent wildfires. The safety of our customers and the communities we serve is always our priority, and we do not take implementing a PSPS lightly.

How is a PSPS different from other outages?
A PSPS is done to prevent fire during high wind or extreme weather events when there is a risk of wildfire. We will directly notify impacted customers in advance of a PSPS if at all possible, which is why it is important to make sure you have updated your contact information with Idaho Power. There are other times we may have to proactively de-energize a power line, and we have recently done so as active fires burned toward our lines. In these cases, which are not PSPS events, we usually de-energize so firefighters can safely work in the area.

I had blue skies, so why did it take so long to restore power?
When outages occur during high wildfire risk conditions like we are experiencing now, we must patrol our lines before we can turn them back on. Sometimes we can patrol with drones or helicopters, but other times that work happens by truck or on foot or ATV. Some areas can be patrolled at night, but others cannot. Patrolling our lines helps us find any damage or hazards that could increase the risk for fires or prolonged outages if we re-energize.

Why haven’t these happened before?
Idaho Power has had a PSPS plan in place for three summers, but this was the first event we had to implement due to the combination of a strong wind event—gusts reached up to 60 mph in the Boise area—and increased fire risk. Most utilities in the west have PSPS programs in place as we encounter extreme weather events more often.

To our customers who experienced outages, we thank you for your patience and understanding. As we continue to mature our program and processes, we are committed to learning, improving, and keeping you informed. We encourage all customers to learn more about the “why” behind our PSPS plan and our commitment to keeping you safe by visiting idahopower.com/PSPS.