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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune November 12. 2014 5:55PM Pacific Power girds for winter woes A Pacific Power lineman demonstrates techniques for how they respond to power-line problems during outages. Photo by Greg Stiles. Like it or not, power outages are more apt to take place in cold, dark, blustery months. Ready or not, wintry weather is already creating havoc on Oregon's electrical grid. Even as Pacific Power demonstrated its power outage restoration system for first responders and the media Wednesday, some of its local resources were providing mutual assistance in northern Oregon, where blizzard-like conditions hit the Columbia Gorge. "Remember back in 2007, we had winds hitting the coast that we clocked as high as at 130 mph," said Debbie Guerra, who oversees Pacific Power's emergency management and dispatch operations. "In the East, they call it a hurricane. We call it a wind event." Whether meteorological, animal, equipment or human in origin, a broad range of elements can knock out power. It seems to get worse this time of year. "Changes in the weather, wind storms, snow storms, especially the storms that effect the trees that cause a lot of the outages, that's what we have in winter," said Rich Voegele, the local operations manager. In Jackson County, Pacific Power handles 497 miles of high-voltage transmission lines and another 3,126 miles of distribution wires in its 2,800-square-mile service area, serving 95,886 customers. "We usually go to the location, figure out how many customers are out and start patrolling the line," Voegele said  "Then we go back in and compare it to the maps and send people out to do the repairs." Whether it's a major event or localized outage, the process is fairly consistent. "A lot of times we don't know what caused the damage," he said. "Once we find out what caused the damage, we determine what we are going to do to fix it." Whether it's a powerless customer or a bystander figuring out his next move, the first question is invariably the same. "The No. 1 question always is how long is the outage going to last, when are lights going to be back on?" Voegele said. "And that is going to totally depend on what caused the problem." As the crews assess damage, the first thing they are looking for are blown fuses, disrupting service anywhere from a house or two to multiple neighborhoods. After that they're looking to see if wire has been downed by falling trees or vehicles. "Every one is different, you never go to the same situation twice," Voegele said. While underground lines can be a blessing, they can be headaches when things go wrong. "It's not exposed, so you don't have the typical weather issues, but it comes from overhead at some point and goes to underground," said Larry Young, the company's Southwest operations director. "We do have bird issues that can be a problem, we do have wind, trees and snow storms that can be a problem. If that goes out, then our underground is done. It's harder to fix and harder to troubleshoot. I can drive down the road with a spotlight and I can find out where the (problem) is with an overhead line. Underground, I'm going to have to get people out, have to get equipment, going to have to test, it's not as easy to locate." Beyond that, underground cables don't last forever, said Regional Manager Monte Mendenhall. "When you have older cable that deteriorates, it takes you a little longer to restore that power," Mendenhall said. "You've got to go find the fault in it, got to be able to excavate that area and be able to make repairs to it. And of course, be able to put everything back together again." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge.                                                   http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141112/NEWS/141119847 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->