Pledges made to improve reliability, but no hint of compensation for interruptions in service
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
Talent residents packed the meeting room at Talent Library beyond capacity Wednesday evening, filling every chair, lining walls and halls and peering through doorways, all for the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session with Ryan Flynn, president of Pacific Power.
Talent residents have endured 40 power outages in 2024, most of which affected those in rural areas, as previously reported by Ashland.news. At the invitation of state Sen. Jeff Golden, Flynn traveled from Portland to share what the company is doing to rectify the situation and listen to complaints and concerns directly.
“This is the heart of our company,” Flynn said. “This is where most of our customers reside. I did come down from Portland, but my mind is always in Southern Oregon. … Our core function is customer’s safety and health, creating jobs, facilitating housing, growing manufacturing, creating sustainable communities, and I believe in that 100%.”
As president of the company, he said he takes personal responsibility for the system not living up to his standards or those of Talent residents.
“We will be better than this summer in this community,” he said. “Will there be additional outages this year? Maybe. Will there be more outages next year on the sensitive settings? Perhaps. But we will be better. … That’s really what I came here to say, we want to have a more robust, more resilient system, we are committed to communicating better with this community.”
The poor system performance is not the fault of the men and women people see working in bucket trucks, he said. Extreme wildfire risk has necessitated enhanced safety settings (ESS).
If a squirrel, tree branch, bird or other natural element hits a wire, the system will attempt to reclose the circuit again, something most people would see as lights flashing, but remaining on, he said. When ESS are turned on, the system will instead de-energize immediately and not turn back on until the entire length of the affected line has been manually inspected.
Around 40% of the systems owned by Pacific Power are on ESS settings now and, while many believe Talent has been disproportionately affected, this is a misconception, Flynn said to protests from the audience. Yakima County in Washington and the Enterprise area of Oregon have also experienced similar disruptions and Flynn has had similar conversations with those customers, he said.
Of the four distribution circuits in Talent, two have been most heavily affected, particularly circuit 5R328, which is 147 miles long, according to information furnished by Pacific Power and obtained by Ashland.news.
“We’ve had some bird issues, turkeys, different things that hit this particular circuit. …. I hate to call it luck, but we’ve just had a few more issues with tree issues, squirrels, birds, what have you,” said Tom Elde, a Pacific Power employee sitting near Flynn to answer technical questions.
Reimagining the grid to stabilize it in the face of extreme wildfire won’t “happen overnight,” Flynn said.
“It’s a new reality and it’s a new world. This is a record breaking wildfire season in Oregon, two million acres burned, 1,700 documented fires. … We know it took 100 years to build our grid, and we know it doesn’t operate the same in an extreme weather environment. What that means is that, more often than not, we’re having to choose between safety and reliability,” he said.
To avoid choosing between two imperatives, Flynn said the company has instituted a number of measures. It is working on reimagining communication with better and more frequent messaging. It installed “bird diverters” and is working on diversion devices for other forms of wildlife. It has installed fault circuit indicators, making it easier to identify and isolate affected sections of line and restore power faster. The company is also using drones and a helicopter to attempt to speed up inspection of the lines.
Talent residents in attendance heeded Golden’s request to remain respectful, but not to shy away from challenging questions.
“On a base level,” said a man who identified himself as Ryan, “this is a pretty big financial hardship for people. I mean, if the power goes out, your fridge goes out, your food goes bad. … You have a bad meal at a restaurant, they comp the check, something goes wrong at the movie theater, they give you a free ticket on your way out the door. We can’t really go to an alternate power source.
“I guess my question is, what are you prepared to commit to to compensate everyone in this room for the bad service that we’ve gotten?” he said.
Some residents expressed frustration at the lack of forewarning that drones would be flying over the lines, sometimes through private property. Others were concerned about a notification that the company was intending to apply a chemical to impede tree growth without providing an option for residents to oppose this action.
Some said they got no emails while others received email communication that was lackluster. Others were able to get help from customer service representatives while some said attempts to reach help were ignored. Some said they received text notifications while others did not. The lack of communication contributed to financial hardship for many.
“Had I known these kinds of systems were being implemented and changes were happening. … I may have been able to take different measures based on that understanding,” another man said.
Many noted they worked or went to school from home and experienced undue hardship and disruption with outages happening sometimes more than once in a single day.
Another woman identified herself as Ana, owner of the Sweet Beet Station restaurant. Power outages mean the air conditioner and refrigerators have to work harder once the power comes back on and the space has increased dramatically in temperature. Power bills for the business are immense as a result.
“I want to say I really appreciate your honesty and sincerity as you address this crowd. … But the hard question right now is, what are you going to do to reimburse me for this massive bill that is not my fault?” she said.
One woman asked about the company about creating a nonprofit to assist in purchasing generators. Flynn responded there is a generator rebate program. The generator rebate program has a limit of $4,000, according to its website.
Cheryl Lashly, the organizer of a gathering to bring attention to the outages weeks earlier, stated that she had received a bid of $15,000 for a generator system capable of meeting her family’s needs.
Those who are medically vulnerable can also give their information to Pacific Power customer service representatives and be added to a list of those who will be prioritized during power outages and their vulnerable status made known to first responders, Flynn said.
Another woman bouncing a baby against her chest echoed the frustrations of others that Pacific Power has proposed raising rates after such poor service. She encouraged her fellow Talent residents to get in touch with the Citizens Utility Board to help advocate for a limit to the rate increases. The CUB is a nonprofit advocating for consumer protection concerning utilities, according to its website.
Flynn encouraged many to come and speak to him personally after the event was over and stated he would stay until “every last question is answered.”
Golden brought the event to a conclusion, noting he heard one question repeated more than any other, leading him to ask if Pacific Power could consider reimbursing at least some documented instances of financial hardships caused by the outages.
Flynn demurred at this request as he had at all previous questions related to compensation.
“I will say that we try to manage our costs as best we can. … we’re investing our dollars in the resilience of the system so that we have less frequent outages going forward. I’m happy to have a conversation with you about that, but that’s where we’re focused right now,” Flynn said.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.
Related stories:
Community meeting set in Talent on frequent Pacific Power outages (Sept. 11, 2024)
Talent residents gather to press for reliable power (Aug. 28, 2024)
Talent residents to rally Tuesday for reliable power (Aug. 23, 2024)
