Why We Plan Outages

Why we Plan Outages
Understanding why we

Plan Power Outages

Regular maintenance on our electrical grid ensures the safe and reliable delivery of power to our members. Like many other systems that require downtime to conduct maintenance, planned power outages are a vital part of the proper upkeep of power lines. By planning outages and maintaining power lines now, we prevent emergency outages in the future.

Power Outage Dates
How we decide planned

Power Outage Dates

In reality, there is never a good or convenient time to lose power to your home, acreage, or business. However, we do our best to select dates and times for planned power outages that pose the least inconvenience to our members. Weather is a huge factor in how we determine planned outage dates, as we don't conduct planned outages in extreme hot or cold temperatures.

Standard types of

Planned Maintenance

Blue Mountain Power Co-op has a robust, safe and economical pole maintenance program. It is included in our strategic planning and plays a huge part in the capital investment of your distribution system. We patrol lines in our service areas every year, ensuring that maintenance and repairs are carried out in a timely and effective manner to help reduce unplanned power outages.

Each year, on a seven-year rotation, we test a different portion of our poles within our service area to identify those that are no longer dependable. Identified poles are typically changed the following year unless they are a hazard and must be changed immediately. The program identifies wood poles that have reduced in strength for reasons such as decay, insects or rodents, and storm damage.

We make every effort to notify members of any power outages that may occur during the pole replacement process. The program identifies wood poles that have reduced strength for reasons such as decay, insects or rodents, and storm damage.

Due to potential or known damage following a weather-related incident, we must sometimes schedule outages on very short notice to test for and repair damage to lines and poles. In these situations, we strive to give our members as much advanced notice as possible. During extreme weather, we may even need to alter our repair plans to keep our crews safe. By taking the necessary steps to make repairs as soon as it is safe to do so, we help prevent future unplanned outages.

Recent Announcements

Members are free to purchase electricity services from a retailer of their choice.
For a list of retailers, visit ucahelps.alberta.ca or call 310-4822 (toll free in Alberta).