Power Outage During Weekend of Frigid Cold

Over the second weekend of January, Musselshell County and most of Montana faced our most severe temperatures of the winter thus far. Temperatures of twenty below zero and colder. These temperatures are critical at the best of times. To make matters more severe, the Fergus Electric Substation at Roundup went down leaving 2300 members without power. This included patrons in Melstone, Winnett and Grass Range. The local DES opened a warming station for those without power to have a warm place to be during the outage. DES had three calls for welfare service checks during the power outage. Justin Russell states that all three of the homes checked were fine, and one person utilized the warming shelter. They also sent a code red message out. Justin stated that most people do not have a land line anymore, and if they do they often have the wireless base, which doesn't hold up in a power outage. This can make emergency services responses more difficult. DES recommends that everyone have a corded landline for emergency services. No injuries were reported from the DES. The last people to get power restored were without power till 1130 pm. Most others had their power back up around 645pm. The warming center was open from 3-9pm for six hours. The Red Cross was notified after the warming center was open. The sheriff's office assisted with DES to occupy the warming center. The fire department had two structure fires over the frigid weekend, one was a total loss, and another was put out with the help of neighbors by the time the fire department made it out.

Local Fergus Electrician technicians, Owen Thatcher, and Brent Nellermoe provided a few more details for the Roundup Record. The breaker main that feeds a 50 KVA line failed. This breaker feeds all the substations down the line. This substation is located behind the sawmill in Roundup. The Internal mechanism had an internal bearing that fell apart and was inoperable. Brent states that they would never have been able to find it or repair it. They had to call a couple sub-technicians from NorthWestern to come down and look at it. It took them a while to find the problem. The switch couldn't be closed back in. After eleven hours the Roundup crew, the sub techs, a relay tech, and a couple others had fixed the complications. Brent states that getting the power back to life down the line once it is fixed also takes time. The "cold load pick up" pulls many more amps than a regular operation day. After the 50 KVA line was restored, it took a couple more hours to restore power to everyone. There is still a new breaker that needs restored, but they will wait for a warmer day and let everyone know when they will be doing it so that they can prepare. The linemen were taken aback by how nice everyone was about the situation, and said that customers were

so good to them.

Locally, a poll conducted on Facebook by Musselshell Media with 52 participants showed that 38 or 73% of those who voted were able to help themselves through the crisis, while 7 or 13% had to get outside help, and 7 or 13% helped someone in need. Though it is a small collection of data of the many affected, it does show how our community is mostly self-reliant. Montanans are used to pulling through on their own or with the help of their neighbors. It is recommended, if possible, that people have more than one source of heat during the winter. If you can have a second source of power that is also good.

This is a Facebook post from Fergus Electric's General Manager Carson Sweeney about the event.

On Sunday, January 14th, Fergus Electric's 50kV transmission breaker opened at 7:50 a.m. within NorthWestern Energy's Roundup Substation, causing an outage for approximately 2,300 members.

Due to the bitter cold temperatures, we spent the first few hours warming the device to operate the breaker back to the closed position. Upon further investigation, we realized that the breaker had failed internally and was damaged beyond repair. We then contacted NorthWestern Energy to request assistance. Without hesitation they began discussing a solution which involved gathering many NorthWestern Energy employees from across the state to help us plan how to safely restore power under such difficult conditions.

After 11 long hours of dangerously cold temperatures, we were able to restore power to the majority of members impacted. Throughout the next few hours, we were able to restore power to the last remaining members. Our employees alongside the NorthWestern Energy employees worked relentlessly during this time to restore power as safely and quickly as possible.

I am proud of their efforts and determination to brave the cold under significant duress. I'd like to thank our members for their support and patience as we worked on a solution. I've heard many stories of neighbors helping neighbors and of the tremendous support everyone showed for our team. Thank you for your grace and patience.

Carson Sweeney

General Manager

Fergus Electric Cooperative, Inc.