BOISE, Idaho — Thousands of people don't have power Wednesday evening across southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. As of 6:30 p.m., that number is close to 23,000 Idaho Power customers – meaning no lights, AC and refrigeration on another triple-digit day.
You can find the current numbers on outages by clicking here.
These outages are weather related and due to Idaho Power putting its "Public Safety Power Shutoff" (PSPS) plan in motion.
Idaho Power said it's cutting electricity to some areas out of an abundance of caution so that new fires don't start, as strong thunderstorms are moving through the area Wednesday afternoon and evening, packing powerful winds with gusts up to 70 mph.
“It's really a last resort for us to ensure public safety to avoid the possibility of starting wildfires," Idaho Power Communication Specialist Brad Bowlin said. "We're looking at areas with a lot of dry fuels, and think about areas in the Boise Foothills, where there's all that dry grass and material that will burn quickly and easily. So, when you have a combination of that, and you have populated areas, and then you have extremely high winds – we want to just make sure that there's not a risk of starting wildfire.”
The PSPS went into effect for some areas around 5:30 p.m. and potential for additional outages lingers until later Wednesday night (TBD due to varying conditions). It could happen any time within this window for a variety of lengths of time. Some people could see shorter or longer outages, depending on conditions.
Bowlin said it will continue to be a very fluid situation.
"We have meteorologists standing by 24/7, keeping track of where things are relative to our equipment and updating that information constantly," Bowlin said. "Then we will send out additional messages as the situation warrants so that we can give people as much notice as we possibly can so they can be prepared.”
The PSPS plan isn't entirely new, but this is the first time Idaho Power put it into place. The utility company considers it a last resort. Idaho Power said the planning started in 2021, and the plan was actionable in time for the 2022 wildfire season.
RELATED: Wildfire prevention may be leaving some Idahoans without power in the summer and fall months
There's also a Red Flag Warning in place across much of southern Idaho and eastern Oregon because of high fire danger.
The areas affect by the PSPS plan are listed on the Idaho Power website.
As previously mentioned, some of these outages are weather related and not part of the PSPS planned outages. But, even some of the the weather-related outages are due to the additional precautions Idaho Power is taking. Bowlin elaborated the powerlines are set to de-energize more easily if a tree branch or winds affect them.
"Folks might experience this sometimes where their power goes out briefly, and then it comes back on within a minute or two, or even sooner. A lot of times what that is, is maybe a branch or a bird gets into a line, it causes a breaker to trip and the power goes out," Bowlin said. "Some of those lines, they'll automatically reclose. They'll try to reconnect themselves, reconnect power, and then if they don't find any resistance, then you're good to go. Well, in this case, we don't want that to happen. So then we set those to non-reclosed, so if something trips, then that line is going to stay off until one of our crews can go and physically patrol the area and make sure there's no further hazard.”
Idaho Power said they sent out a text message at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to about 50,000 customers. If you got the text message from this morning, you are in the one of the areas that may be involved in this PSPS event.
Idaho Power called and sent texts to a larger group of people last night, to give an additional heads up about potential weather-related outages.
“One of the reasons why we sent the message out last night is to remind folks that even if you're not in a PSPS zone, there's still the potential for outages that are storm related, right," Bowlin said. "High winds, that sort of thing, lightning. Folks should be prepared for an outage – whether they're in a PSPs zone or not."
If you’re in one of the PSPS areas, you should be getting messaging from Idaho Power. Bowlin added that sharing messaging you receive from Idaho Power via social media or text message can be confusing for other people because PSPS planned outages will be hyper localized. So it may be irrelevant, and possibly confusing, to someone else even if they live nearby.