11:15 p.m., June 17
Our crews have made great headway tonight. Fewer than 50 outages remain at this time. They will keep working until all are customers are back online.
10:45 p.m., June 17
We currently have 133 outages in Douglas County, and our crews continue to work to bring power back to those impacted by today’s weather.
Our crews have reported equipment failures due to the extreme heat, as well as wind gusts blowing power limbs into overhead power lines. There was also a property damage issue taht contributed to some of this evening’s outages.
Energy usage for our system set an all-time high at 6:05 p.m, surpassing the previous record set on Aug. 1, 2011.
Our crews have worked very hard in some tough conditions to make needed repairs. They will continue working as long as it takes to make sure all of our customers are energized.
9:40 p.m., June 17
Outage numbers are coming down slowly but surely. Many individual fixes are needed to bring the remaining customers back online. At this time, we still have more than 100 customers without power. All but one of those outages are in Douglas County.
Our crews will not stop working until all are back online. We greatly appreciate our customers and are working as quickly and safely as possible to get your lights and air conditioning back on.
7:45 p.m., June 17
We’ve continued to have steady reports of scattered outages from our customers, mainly in Douglas County. We currently have 325 customers without power.
Our troubleshooters have found causes related to the heat and also to tree branches in overhead lines. We have also experienced some interruptions as a result of property damage.
Our electricity usage peaked at 6:05 p.m. But we may still see outages fluctuate throughout the evening. We are responding as quickly as is safely possible.
If you experience an outage, please report it online or by calling 1-800-554-6773 so that we are aware and can respond.
6:30 p.m., June 17
Outages are down to just over 200 right now, as our crews have worked to restore circuit ouatages. We will post updates here when we receive them from our teams in the field.
6 p.m., June 17
OPPD troubleshooters are responding to a number of power outages in several counties. More than 1,000 customers are without power — most of them in Douglas County.
While we do not yet have causes to report, extreme heat can cause added strain on electric equipment, causing it to break down.
We appreciate our customers’ patience as we respond to the various outage reports. We know it’s not easy in this heat. Please know that we are working to identify problems and get power restored as quickly and as safely as possible.
If you experience an outage, please report it online or by calling 1-800-554-6773 so that we are aware and can respond.
With record-level high temperatures and peak energy usage across our entire region, OPPD has tips for conserving energy. Lowering the thermostat a couple degrees, keeping unused lights off, and curtains closed when the sun is not shining, are all good ways to do this. Also, put computers in sleep mode and shut monitors off when not in use. And hold off from running the washer and dryer or dishwasher until the warmer hours of the day, if possible, not early morning or late night.
Visit OPPD.com/ee for more energy efficiency tips and information.