DVEC working to restore customers' electricity

Customers served by Dakota Valley Electric Cooperative have been experiencing extensive electric out-ages that began as the late-winter storm passed through the area Tuesday afternoon and evening.

The electric outages are mostly confined to consumers west of a north-south line extending from LaMoure through Oakes and to the South Dakota border. The problems are affecting both transmission lines, which bring electricity to the area, and Dakota Valley’s local distribution lines.

Dakota Valley’s substations serving members in the LaMoure, Fredonia and Forbes areas are out of service due to outages on the transmission lines.

Dakota Valley is also experiencing extensive outages on its local distribution lines, particularly in the Ellendale, Monango, Gackle and Jud areas.

“All Dakota line crews have been fighting these outages since Tuesday afternoon, but progress has been slow due to high winds,” said Dakota Valley Operations Manager Craig Rysavy. “We are not finding many broken poles, but so far most outages have been caused by wire breaks and broken cross arms caused by “galloping” lines.

“In many cases, our line crews are having difficulty getting to the outages due to water-covered roads and soft fields, and the repair work has been difficult because it all has to be done by hand — we can’t get our trucks out into these soft fields,” Rysavy said.

According to Rysavy, members should be prepared for an extended outage, perhaps as long as three to four days in duration.

Because of the difficulty in traveling township roads, which are often covered with water or washed out, Dakota Valley urges its members to notify the cooperative if they see any damaged electric lines in their area.

Tags: dakota valley electric cooperative, news, outage, repair