How electric companies were impacted by the severe weather

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -Electric companies have been working around the clock after severe storms have damaged powerlines across the state.

Chris Studer, East River Electric public relations say it about monitoring the storm.

“The biggest thing when a storm hit is figuring out where the damage is and how bad it is,” said Chris Studer, East River Electric public relations.

From there they assess the damage and figure out the next steps

“We have people 24/7 watching our transmission system and they get alert when something happens.” Studer.

Thomas Glanzer with Northwestern Energy says the biggest concern is safety when making decisions.

“If you see a down powerline, don’t go near it, our main thing is everyone will get their power back on, but it also comes back on safely and nobody gets injured,” said Thomas Glanzer Northwester Energy public relations.

They both say part of this is working to reroute power to restore different areas.

“We were able to sectionalize the part that was out, there’s about 750 people out and it happened at 1:30 in the morning. So, we were able to sectionalize some of that and get people in right away about a half hour later and then there were some who were out for an hour or two after that. So, if we can sectionalize that’s the first thing we are going to do,’ said Glanzer.

Both companies will have linemen working around the clock to make sur power lines are fixed.

‘” We are prepared to be able to respond to all these outages. Yesterday we had about fifty people out assessing the damage and starting work right away throughout the day yesterday and then into today,” said Studer.

Both electric companies say they will be monitoring the weather this summer and will be ready to act accordingly if damage does occur.

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