News Search

News

Housing power outage update

  • Published
  • By David Morin
  • 47th Civil Engineering Squadron
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas - --  If you live in the 8000 series of housing or the enlisted dorms, you are well aware that there have been multiple power outages over the last few months. Wing leadership, along with the 47th Civil Engineering Squadron staff and our commercial partners, American Electric Power and Rio Grande Electric Co-op, have placed the highest priority on identifying and fixing the most probable causes of the outages as soon as possible.

Wing leadership personally met with our on-base maintenance provider, RGEC, to discuss possible solutions and to devise a game plan to eliminate the recurring outages.

Much of Laughlin's power lines were installed in the 1950s and 1960s with few upgrades since. Due to this aging infrastructure, most of our outages are caused by either animals, equipment failure or lightening strikes.

In an effort to alleviate these problems, a number of steps have been or are being taken. Over the last year, RGEC has made improvements, including a pole-by-pole inspection, which identified and replaced 96 components nearing failure. Additionally, 30 poles were replaced and an infrared inspection of lines and connections was completed, resulting in 23 additional repairs. Finally, a breaker substation was replaced.

In addition, RGEC is replacing numerous metal components with fiberglass components, which will reduce the negative effects of squirrels and large birds on the power lines.

To resolve the equipment failures, RGEC is conducting intensive assessments of individual components and will also be replacing multiple power poles on base. Furthermore, a main breaker serving the affected area will be replaced with a more modern version.

RGEC has also installed an advanced power monitoring system that has helped identify that the source for some outages are originating from lines off-base. With this knowledge, we have partnered with AEP, owner of the lines off base, to have components upgraded and trees trimmed along the highway that could interfere with lines that feed the base.

Finally, as an interim fix for the current spate of outages, the 8000 series homes, the enlisted dorms and the other facilities impacted by the recent outages, have been switched to a different power feed until a definitive cause can be identified and fixed.

Despite all of our efforts, power outages, even with the most modern infrastructure, are bound to happen. Therefore, residents are encouraged to keep an emergency kit available. Things to keep in your kit include a flashlight, extra batteries and a battery operated radio. In addition, minimize opening your refrigerator and freezer doors to prevent food from spoiling. Per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, food will generally remain good for up to two hours.

In the long term, a multi-million dollar project to place our power lines underground is set to begin within the next year. Due to the extensive nature of the work, the project won't be completed for many years. However, the combined effect of the ongoing upgrades is that power quality will continue to improve each year.

The point of contact for further information is the base utility engineer, David Morin, at (830)298-5029.