12/26/21 UPDATE 10:00 AM
Our crews worked through the night and made great progress as no new outages came in. We only have a few scattered smaller outages remaining, the largest being north of Vallecito Lake. Currently, we have 16 outages and 107 members out of power.
12/25/21 UPDATE 7:30 PM
We are down to 63 outages and 859 members out of power. We know many of you have been out of power for a long time. We know this is frustrating and scary. Here is the latest update, direct from our VP of Operations Jerry Sutherlin:
"Many of our crew have not seen their families today. A few missed their child's first Christmas. But they continue to work in the dark and wet, outage after outage, to restore power to all. Neighboring utilities have also been hit hard and are not able to provide assistance. This storm brought wet and heavy snow. Add to that the dramatic temperature swings which froze that wet snow where it lay on lines and trees, and you have trees breaking and lines sagging into each other under the weight of the snow and burning down. Thank you all for your patience and for understanding what we are up against. This is not a matter of our infrastructure not being maintained properly, this is truly a matter of mother nature winning. We will not rest until the last member is restored."
12/25/21 UPDATE 11:30 AM
As the weather warms, snow is unloading from our lines causing more outages. We currently have 67 outages impacting 1,387 members. This storm has hit more individual tap lines than sections of larger lines, which is causing more outages, each impacting fewer people. This means it is taking our crews longer to arrive on the scene, assess, fix, restore and then travel to the next outage. Again, we know this is the worst timing and has scuppered quite a few holiday plans. We apologize for the inconvenience. Our crews will remain in the field until everyone is restored.
12/25/21 UPDATE 7:30 AM
Merry Christmas! It’s been a long, cold night for our crews, and the roughly 800 members still without power. LPEA continues to patrol lines, clear trees, and put wire back in the air. We are down to 54 outages and will keep working until power is restored.
Get the latest outage statistics on our outage map or by signing up for our Outage Texting Service.
12/24/21 UPDATE 9:00 PM
We currently have 83 outages with 1,797 members out. Crews will be out, around the clock, until power is restored to all our members.
12/24/21 UPDATE 3:30 PM
LPEA currently has 80 outages and 1,969 members out. Outages have been widespread due to snow and wind.
Today, Friday, December 24, we are experiencing widespread outages due to snowstorms across our service territory. The largest outages are currently around Pagosa Springs.
Crews have been dispatched and will be working to restore power to all members as quickly as they are safely able. It takes longer to restore outages in snowy conditions. Water is a conductor, so crews must take extra safety precautions to keep themselves and the public safe.
We know you want information on WHEN your power will be restored. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give a time of restoration because crews don't know the issue until they arrive at each outage location and restoration times vary widely depending on the cause (e.g. a limb on the line vs. a broken power pole vs. an open circuit from lines slapping together). As a general rule of thumb, we start with the biggest outages and work our way down to individual homes. We also prioritize issues that pose a risk to public safety, such as downed lines and car hit poles and equipment.
We want to thank you for your patience while our crews work to restore your power as quickly as is safely possible.
For the latest updates on outage locations, visit http://outage.lpea.coop/
For more outage resources, visit https://lpea.coop/outage-center