Jefferson County leaders are pushing back against a wave of power outages in the Madras area, saying the disruptions are causing real financial damage to local farmers and residents. PacifiCorp — the parent company of Pacific Power — says the outages are a necessary fire prevention measure given the region's extreme wildfire risk.
Since the beginning of June, Madras has experienced five power outages. Some stem from what PacifiCorp calls "enhanced safety settings" — a system that de-energizes power lines when sensors detect a potential fault that could spark a fire. Others have been tied to equipment issues at a local substation.
How the System Works
"If there's a fault detected, we know there's been an event. We know there's a problem," PacifiCorp spokesman Simon Gutierrez told Central Oregon Daily. "We know that there's a situation where there could have been a spark emitted. So, we put the system on these settings to make sure that that spark is not emitted."
PacifiCorp employs a team of meteorologists who monitor fire weather conditions and trigger the enhanced settings during periods of high risk. The utility says it is sympathetic to customer impacts but that fire prevention is the overriding priority — particularly after the company came under fire for its role in the 2020 Labor Day fires, which burned across thousands of acres of Oregon land. PacifiCorp recently settled a nearly $600 million federal lawsuit stemming from that disaster.
The Local Impact
For Jefferson County's agricultural community, unplanned outages cause more than inconvenience. North Unit Irrigation District (NUID) General Manager Josh Bailey says the power interruptions create real operational problems.
"We'll have gates that are shut down and then they go to correct themselves when the power comes back on and it ends up spilling water down through our system," Bailey said. "So, it's not as controllable, and it puts our system at risk."
Irrigation infrastructure depends on consistent power to manage water flow through the district's extensive canal network. Unplanned cycling of that equipment can cause water waste, infrastructure stress, and costly repairs.
PacifiCorp's Response
Following a media inquiry, Gutierrez said some substation repairs have already been made, with others in progress. "Our engineering team is also reviewing additional line segments for potential reliability improvements that could be made in the future," he said.
PacifiCorp said it has also added equipment designed to limit the number of customers impacted when an outage does occur.
Jefferson County officials have not yet announced formal action but have signaled they intend to keep pressure on PacifiCorp to address the situation in a way that balances fire safety with the economic realities of running irrigation infrastructure and farm operations in the high desert.