Related News
Related News
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Upgrades to Eugene's downtown electric network continue
You may have noticed construction this week on the corner of 7th and Pearl Street. That’s because crews replaced a corroded, aging vault with an innovative, new Voltek vault. The Voltek design allows for the new infrastructure to be built inside of the existing aging vault. We’re able to install the new vault while the cables are still energized, minimizing disruption to customers and traffic while cutting construction time in half.
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The Big Freeze 2024: After Action Report
Winter 2024 was one for the records books, and we'll look back on it for years to come and say, "That was a doozy!" The back-to-back January Ice Storms caused widespread damage to EWEB’s service territory, affecting approximately 38,000 customers. Preliminary repair costs were over $8 million, and additional repairs to transmission lines are still required.
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Fixing the Unseen: Water Pipeline Replacement in Unincorporated Eugene
Learn more about EWEB's methods for monitoring and replacing aged water pipelines.
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Spring Cleaning? How about Spring Emergency Preparedness!
Spring is officially here and that means the plants are blooming, the sun is (sometimes) shining, and the grass is green! We've had our fair share of severe weather already, but spring weather is notoriously unpredictable. While you're in the midst of spring cleaning and garden care, consider completing these emergency preparedness tasks.
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EWEB General Manager Delivers 2024 State of the Utility
General Manager Frank Lawson delivered his address at the March 5 public Board of Commissioners meeting
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Nine days without power: My ice storm story as an EWEB customer and employee
While beautiful and peaceful, buying a home on the edge of the forest and surrounded by trees has its tradeoffs. Moving “upriver,” I knew there would be more threats to prepare for, including Mother Nature’s seasonal surprises.
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EWEB achieves power restoration milestone over the weekend
Crews have so far restored power for 92% of customers who originally lost power at the height of the ice storm.
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Reenergized McKenzie River Valley transmission lines allow EWEB crews to restore power upriver
On Friday, a majority of EWEB crews tackled power restoration efforts upriver, after federally managed transmission lines were reenergized Thursday.
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EWEB estimates one week to complete power system restoration
On Wednesday, EWEB crews restored power for about 10,000 customers by repairing large equipment first.
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Second round of ice and ensuing thaw prompt mass power outages
On Wednesday, all EWEB crews, who have been working nonstop since Saturday, traversed EWEB’s service territory assessing the damage and restoring transmission lines and main power feeders.
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Power restored at EWEB’s water treatment plant
Crews restored electric power at EWEB's Hayden Bridge Water Filtration Plant Monday evening, allowing operators to switch off the generators and rely again on the grid. Meanwhile, EWEB crews brace for additional outages amidst second round of ice and during the coming thaw.
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EWEB crews making downed lines safe and restoring power across Eugene and the foothills
As EWEB works to restore electric service to customers affected by the ice storm, the customer-owned utility is following established policies and its “hierarchy of repair” to prioritize repairs that restore electric service to the greatest number of customers.
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Leaburg Decommissioning Action Plan
Plan details next steps through regulatory processes to begin dismantling Leaburg Dam by 2032.
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What’s ahead in 2024: General manager’s message to EWEB customer-owners
At the start of the new year, we back at accomplishments from 2023 and look ahead at what's to come in 2024.
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Currin Substation: End of year update
EWEB Engineer Philip Peterson explains what's been happening in the final stretch to complete the substation rebuild.
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EWEB and ShakeAlert monitor earthquake effects on hydropower facilities
October 20, 2022
Today EWEB joined over 44 million organizations across the nation in the Great ShakeOut – the world’s largest earthquake drill.
The event is an important reminder of what to do during an earthquake: Drop, Cover, and Hold On. But getting through an actual earthquake is only one step of many to be prepared for one.
EWEB is preparing for earthquakes by upgrading our facilities to modern seismic standards, building emergency water stations in case an earthquake disrupts our ability to supply water for the people of Eugene, and partnering with the ShakeAlert program to monitor our hydropower facilities at Leaburg and Carmen-Smith.
Working with the Oregon Hazards Lab, EWEB installed seismometers at the Leaburg Canal and on Smith Ridge above the Smith Reservoir. These sensors measure acceleration from seismic events, allowing EWEB to contribute information to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), the foundation of the ShakeAlert early warning system. EWEB also benefits from sensors installed throughout the region, receiving advance ShakeAlert warnings of seismic events that could impact our facilities.
At the Leaburg Canal, the seismic sensor incorporates an accelerometer which sends local ground motion data to PNSN’s analytic servers. These servers use the data to instantly determine the epicenter location and magnitude of the seismic event. Potentially damaging events then trigger the release of ShakeAlert warnings. EWEB is developing control systems capable of using these ShakeAlert warnings to take automatic protective action, such as opening or closing gates to reduce water levels in our water retaining canal facilities. ShakeAlert also sends alerts based on ground motion data from the broader regional network at large in a predictive manner to help EWEB operators understand the implications of a far-away earthquake on EWEB facilities.
This month’s 4.4 earthquake near the Green Peter Reservoir north of Sweet Home is a good example of how ShakeAlert helps EWEB’s generation facilities. Within seconds (8.8 seconds, to be exact), the ShakeAlert system sent our operators messages estimating how that earthquake’s shaking would propagate across the Calapooia watershed on to the McKenzie Valley to affect our facilities.
According to the ShakeAlert report, Eugene and our upriver facilities would have felt shaking ten seconds after the earthquake began and at only a two on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale (MMI) – a descriptive indicator of earthquake intensity based on peoples’ felt experiences of shaking during the event. An MMI of two is “Weak,” and “Felt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors of buildings.”
“Our local emergency managers called EWEB to check in on the status of our facilities,” said EWEB Generation Engineering Supervisor Mark Zinniker. “The ShakeAlert contour map was really helpful to show them that the amount of shaking was not significant to our facilities.”
Members of the public can sign up for ShakeAlert notifications, too, for events above a 4.5 magnitude on the Richtor scale. ShakeAlert notifications are also built into the Android OS.
“We monitored the situation and ShakeAlert did exactly what we wanted it to do, but this event did not meet the threshold for public communication, which is 4.5 magnitude and above,” said Robert de Groot, ShakeAlert Coordinator for Communication, Education, Outreach and Technical Management.
With today’s Great ShakeOut drill as an inspiration, it’s a great opportunity to talk about earthquake preparedness with your family. Do you know the Seven Steps to Earthquake Safety? Take a moment to secure your space, plan to be safe, organize supplies, and minimize financial hardships before the next big one shakes things up for real. EWEB’s Pledge to Prepare program is a good starting place for all kinds of emergencies.