The Power of Being Prepared

As the summer begins, and concern for wildfires grows, PSREC continues to enhance its historic preventative program, including vegetation management and proactive equipment maintenance that considers wildfire risk.

Although wildfires have many causes, from lightning to an unattended campfire spark, electric utilities are doing their part to help keep communities safe.

Each year, we trim thousands of trees and clear vegetation. As an added precaution, we are shredding and mulching the underbrush beneath power lines in high density areas.

In mountain areas we reconfigure protective equipment to shut down power lines on the first sign of an electrical fault. The line won’t be re-energized until it is inspected and manually reset.

On portions of overhead power lines, we install current-limiting fuses, which are filled with sand, to help isolate faults and eliminate arcing resulting from fault conditions.

In recent years, we have expanded our tree trimming program throughout our service territory and while we clear vegetation in the rights-of-way, please take precautions to protect yourself and your property.

To reduce the risk, consider the fire resistance of your home, the topography of your property and the nature of the vegetation close by.

Maintain defensible space around your home, business or property. This space is needed to slow or stop the spread of wildfire and it helps protect your home from catching fire—either from direct flame contact or radiant heat. Defensible space is also important for the protection of the firefighters defending your home.

Get ready for wildfire season by downloading the CAL FIRE Wildfire Preparedness App at the Ready for Wildfire website.

Together, we can reduce the impact of wildfire on our community and cooperative. Stay up to date on outage communications from PSREC:

• PSREC will post outage information on our website, psrec.coop, social media (Facebook and Twitter), and via text message.
• To sign up for text message notifications, login to SmartHub from our website or the SmartHub app and set your notification preferences. If you need assistance signing up for notifications, please call us at (800) 555-2207.

Prevent. Prepare. Protect

Like utilities throughout the West, PSREC has continued and expanded efforts to address wildfire concerns as we experience longer dry spells, temperature extremes and summer skies filled with smoke.