NV Energy workers replace transformers for the Minden Post Office on May 12.
NV Energy issued an apology to residents affected by recent power outages across Douglas County.
“We are aware that your community has been impacted by several unplanned outages over the last few weeks and would like to apologize for the inconvenience and frustration you've likely experienced,” the company said in an email to a Genoa resident.
In the email, the company details a half-dozen outages that occurred since May 12.
The Record-Courier received a couple of emails from customers expressing their concern about the outage that occurred on Sunday morning affecting 11,595 NV Energy customers in Carson Valley at its height. Including homes and businesses, that amounts to around half the power company customers in Douglas County.
Sunday’s outage was caused by birds contacting equipment at the Buckeye substation.
June 8, outages were caused by birds contacting equipment in a substation.
While the company said it hasn’t previously experienced a wildlife related outage, a spokeswoman cited birds in a 14,384-customer outage on June 3, 2024, almost precisely a year ago.
The company said it was taking measures to prevent future outages like that.
It has been a shaky couple of months since a March 5 outage that affected 26,700 customers, essentially cutting power to every home and business in the county.
On May 12, power was knocked out by an 80 mph windstorm that blasted through Carson Valley, causing a transformer above the Minden Post Office to blow.
“The adverse weather caused a wire to come loose on a transmission line serving the area,” the company said. “Crews worked to isolate the damage and restore power. The repair has worked well, and we do not anticipate any future outages related to this cause.”
On May 24 and June 1, a transmission line operating on seasonal fire settings tripped and resulted in an outage.
“As part of our Natural Disaster Protection Plan, enhanced safety settings are put into place when fire conditions are elevated,” according to the company. “These settings result in power lines being de-energized more rapidly when there is a fault. In this case, lines are not re-energized until manually patrolled for safety.”
The birds were back for outages on May 27 and June 1.
On June 5, a distribution line tripped due to a broken wire during the thunderstorms. Most customers saw their power restored soon after the damage was discovered, and the remainder were restored after crews were able to make repairs.