A little over a hundred Talent residents packed into a small library meeting room to air their grievances about a frustrating summer that saw around 17 power outages.
The outages, concentrated in Talent, have been caused because of extra sensitive settings of utility equipment designed to prevent wildfires.
Pacific Power President Ryan Flynn said that one reason Talent faced so many outages compared to other cities in the Rogue Valley is because of the community鈥檚 old power infrastructure.
鈥淲e have learned a lot about our system in and around Talent,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I will say, different communities have developed differently over a century. Other communities are more resilient than what we see here in Talent, and we鈥檝e identified that. And again, we鈥檙e actively making those improvements.鈥�
Flynn said they鈥檝e installed around 130 new fault indicators on the power lines, to help pinpoint where an outage might have started.
They鈥檝e also installed more so-called 鈥渞eclosers鈥� which divide up the power grid into smaller pieces. That means when the power does go out, fewer people are affected.
鈥淚 hate to call it luck, but we鈥檝e had a few more tree issues, squirrels, birds, etc. on this side,鈥� said Tom Eide, vice president of operations for Oregon at Pacific Power.
Eide said wildlife deterrents have also been installed, and continue to be retrofitted on older equipment like transformers.
Talent isn鈥檛 the only community under Pacific Power鈥檚 umbrella that鈥檚 seen frequent outages because of these extra sensitive settings. Spokesperson Simon Gutierrez said Jacksonville, Lakeview, parts of the Klamath Basin and parts of Yakima County in Washington have all been dealing with similar issues.
A number of Talent residents were frustrated by the financial impacts they鈥檝e faced because of these outages. Awna Zegzdryn, the owner of restaurant Sweet Beet Station, said every time the power comes back on, her A/C and refrigerators kick into high gear, which raises her utility bill.
鈥淲hat are you going to do to reimburse me for this huge bill that I have that is not my fault?鈥� said Zegzdryn. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 afford to keep having a $200 increase from last summer 鈥� in one month.鈥�
Flynn wouldn't promise reimbursements or discounts from the utility. But, he did say he鈥檇 be open to a conversation about that with state lawmakers, including Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, who was moderating the forum.
Flynn also acknowledged that the company鈥檚 communication regarding the summer鈥檚 outages has been sub-par. He said in the future, they will do a better job of reaching impacted residents over email, text and directly on their utility bills.
鈥淲hat we learned this year is that we have to be better about communicating during wildfire season,鈥� he said.
