During the past few years, Rocky Mountain Power has been working to improve the reliability of its power line serving the Castle Valley, Castleton and Cisco areas. This phase of the work requires service interruptions to customers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on four days: Tuesday, Oct. 17, and Wednesday, Oct. 18, and again on Tuesday, Oct. 31, and Wednesday, Nov. 1.
On those dates, company crews will be replacing four structures, as well as the old conductor wire with new wire between the four new structures. The new conductor will help improve reliability for the customers served by this circuit. Previous work on this project over the past few years included replacing some poles supporting the line and adding others to decrease the length of conductor between poles, which improves resistance to wind interference.
“Whenever possible, our crews perform work when circuits are still energized to minimize inconvenience to our customers,” Rocky Mountain Power Distribution Manager Dan Vink said. “We’ve been able to do quite a bit of work on this project without a planned outage. But when we replace the conductor, it will require an outage in order to do the work safely.”
In notices that it mailed to affected customers on Oct. 5, Rocky Mountain Power advised its affected customers to make necessary preparations for the long outages.
Vink said the company is very much aware of the inconvenience this may cause for its customers.
“That’s why we are sending notices in the mail to everyone affected by this work,” he said. “I’ve talked with many of them directly, and with local elected officials in recent months. We will be able to use a large mobile generator to keep about 370 affected customers in service, although a little more than 300 other customers will be subject to the full length of these outages.”
Vink explained that the generator will be able to continue service to many of the year-round customers who live in the Castle Valley area. Those customers in the communities of Cisco and Castleton, as well as others along state Route 128, will be out of service during the work.
The project involves a 125-mile-long distribution line from the Rattlesnake substation, about 4 miles west of La Sal. The line proceeds north along state Route 46 and U.S. Highway 191 before traversing extremely rugged terrain southeast of Spanish Valley, the Mill Creek Canyon crossing and the Porcupine Rim area.
On Oct. 17 and 18, crews will be working on the Mill Creek Canyon crossing. On Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, they will complete the spans traversing the Porcupine Rim area. Crews will be removing the old conductor and using it to pull the new conductor into place.
For more information about preparing for power outages, go to: www.rockymountainpower.net/ed/po/or/pfpo.html.
