Wildfire Readiness

It’s never too early to prepare.  GCEA reminds residents there are plenty of things they can do to prepare themselves, their families, and their homes, to reduce the risk of wildfire. Things like trimming shrubbery, clearing tree limbs that are close to a home, cleaning gutters, and keeping lawns mowed and watered are good first steps.  Residents should remove anything within a 15-foot radius around a powerline pole if possible and maintain unobstructed access to all GCEA’s equipment, overhead, and on the ground. Call (970) 641-3520 if anything looks amiss or concerning our equipment.

Wildfire Mitigation Plan

Our primary concern is always the safety and protection of our community and environment. The wildfire mitigation plan is part of a larger, ongoing strategic effort to improve the safety and resiliency of our electric grid.

Vegetation management – We’re currently on a three-year cut cycle to analyze and cut if necessary (typical tree growth in five years is ten feet). Dangerous or hazardous trees are removed, including dead trees at risk of falling into overhead power lines.

System inspection – We have a program to visually inspect our overhead system every year.  

Pole testing – Each power pole is tested every eight years (roughly 800 poles every year) for structural integrity. Poles that fail testing are replaced.

Investigate all temporary faults on main feeders – Temporary faults can sometimes turn into permanent faults, so we spend the time to patrol our main feeders for all substation trips, even when the breaker successfully re-closes.

Monthly substation inspections – We inspect our substations monthly.

Supervisory control and data acquisition devices – Equipment in the field (reclosers and switches) provide immediate notification of system disturbances throughout our system allowing us to quickly dispatch operations crews.

Advanced metering system – Provides rapid notification of system outages further narrowing down the location of system issues.