Magic Valley Electric Co-op prepared for freezing weather
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It's not just cold in the Rio Grande Valley, but the entire state also saw colder temperatures Wednesday morning.
That means many people will be cranking up their heater to stay warm, and all that can put a bit of stress on the power supply.
Magic Valley Electric Co-op crews have been spread out all over the Valley and contract workers are on standby ready to step in if any outages become an issue.
Experiencing some ice among colder temperatures can cause outages, but Magic Valley says that before these low temperatures came to the area, they prepped their power lines and checked their weak spots.
Official said only minimal outages have happened through their sub-stations.
Magic Valley Electric Co-op Communications Coordinator Ronie J. Garza said there are tools the teams carry with them to be prepared.
"So our crews, we are all on standby, our contractors and inside personnel. What we did do is have our bigger groups break up into smaller groups to be able to handle any groups efficiently," Garza said. "Our crews do have extra materials whether it's a transformer or poles, we are ready for those in case they need to change those out."
Apart from training all year for these weather events, the Magic Valley team says it really starts with the community on limiting power use at home as power demand across the state is going to be high.
Garza said there are things residents can do at home to make sure they don't put any unnecessary pressure on the power grid.
"The most important tip that I could recommend is that if you do decide, to use your heater at 68 degrees or lower, which is recommended because a heater can use three times as much energy compared to an A/C unit. That can produce a lot of strain on our system and could potentially lead to an outage," Garza said.
Another piece of advice that Magic Valley and all energy companies echo is that if you see a crew out in your neighborhood, for safety reasons, please do not approach them since they are there to do a job.
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