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Outage Causes

Downed tree and lines on a snow-covered slope, seen from a distance.

Power Outages seem to happen at the most inconvenient times. No one enjoys them, especially the employees at Trinity PUD. We would rather our customers and families enjoy their electricity without interruption. All electric companies have outages for many different reasons.

Living in the mountains around tall pine and fir trees has its benefits and disadvantages. In much of our service territory, Trinity PUD is only able to cut and trim trees twenty feet out from the power line. Most of the trees in Trinity County are taller than twenty feet, so when they fall towards the power lines...

Snow-laden tree limb resting on a power line against a grey sky.

This could be caused by nature or by a person. Trees landing on power lines tend to break poles and take out several spans of line. Before the electric lines can be re-energized the damage has to be repaired. Sometimes this repair can take hours. But first the problem has to be found. That is why sometimes you will be asked by someone in the office if you have heard anything unusual. A loud bang, like an explosion, could be a fuse blowing indicating that the damage could be close to your location. Or did you hear a tree fall and then your lights went out?

Sometimes the outage you are experiencing is as simple as your circuit breakers tripping for whatever reason. Familiarize yourself with the location of your main circuit breaker(s). Some houses have two, one at the meter and one on your house. If your power goes out, check your main circuit breaker(s) by switching it off and then back on. If your power is still out, give our office a call at (530) 623-5536 (Dials this phone call). Be prepared to tell us the name on your electric account, your address, and a call back phone number. Also, let us know of any unusual circumstance that may have occurred when the power went out. If it is storming our office will probably be receiving several calls, so please keep your call as short as possible.

Car crashed into a pole at night, emergency lights behind it.

Car's front corner crushed against a wooden utility pole in daylight.

Other types of outages could be caused by vehicles deciding that they don't like where a pole is located!

For some reason birds, squirrels, ringtail cats, or other small critters are drawn to power lines and when they touch more than one wire at a time, the lights go out.

There are also times that Trinity PUD needs to work on the lines and the power needs to be turned off.

Just remember that whenever your power is off, Trinity PUD will work long and hard to get your power restored as quickly as possible.