GVP Outages Shorter than Most
by Rita-Lyn Sanders, Director of Marketing and Communication
GRAND JUNCTION, COLO. - (March 14, 2024) When I joined my elementary school’s guitar club in sixth grade, I learned John Denver songs because I could literally see the lyrics in my head. Phrases such as “I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky” had me visualizing tendrils of lightning reaching down from the clouds to touch the tops of the rocky mountains.
Last summer, while watching one of these awesome displays crawl across the sky over my house, the lights flickered. And then I received a text notification that power had gone out for a significant number of Grand Valley Power members in the Clifton area. Just a couple of minutes later I received another text, this time about an outage in the Orchard Mesa area impacting more than 300 members. Altogether, the lights went out for 2,891 members that August evening.
Power outages are most likely to occur during storms. Be it snow, wind, or lightning, weather can wreak havoc on lines, poles, and electrical devices. In 2023, weather was the top cause of power interruptions for Grand Valley Power members, followed by equipment failure, planned outages, trees, and animals. Regardless of the cause, though, Grand Valley Power members were without power for an average of 68.1 minutes in 2023. This is a stellar result. In the last five years, just one other year ended with a more impressive number.
Grand Valley Power’s System Average Interruption Duration Index, or SAIDI, is below the median for Colorado electric cooperatives, meaning that our members experience shorter outages than most Coloradans. The state median over the past five years is 179.9 minutes, while the national median during the same period is 212.4 minutes.
Over the last 10 years, weather has been one of the most common causes of outages for our members. In the case of the Clifton area outage last August, lightning struck a transformer. The surge caused a three-phase feeder circuit to open and the power to go out for 2,550 members connected to this main line.
Almost immediately, Grand Valley Power’s substation technician, Leroy Lowary, went out on the job. In fact, the power went out at his house, too, practically negating the need for the call from dispatch. Dispatch also called on Lineman Trevor Lettman to respond with Leroy to the Clifton outage, and Serviceman Scott Bradley to head to Orchard Mesa, the location of the smaller outage.
Our linemen rolled out to inspect the system as tendrils of lightning relentlessly slapped the Valley floor. At the large outage in Clifton, Leroy and Trevor patrolled miles of line in the dark under flashing skies. Working safely and efficiently, it took 2.5 hours for them to confirm the lines were clear and to close the circuit to get the lights back on for 2,550 members.
Outages like this demonstrate how one severe weather event can have a big impact on Grand Valley Power’s SAIDI number. I know that I never really thought about what it means. Now, I think about it every time it rains fire in the sky.