Related News
Related News
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EWEB opens application for 2024 Electric Mobility Community Grants
Grant awards of up to $30,000 to cover costs associated with electric mobility projects.
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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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Celebrate Earth Month by taking charge of your home's energy use
This Earth Month, learn how you can reduce your energy usage to help protect our planet and reduce carbon emissions.
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Spring Cleaning? How about Spring Emergency Preparedness!
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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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Preparation and Resilience: How EWEB Maintained Water Service During Recent Ice Storm
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EWEB crews focusing on restoring electric service for Hayden Bridge Water Filtration Plant
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Leaburg Decommissioning Action Plan
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Start the New Year saving money with energy saving tips
We know that saving money is important to our customers. Using energy and water wisely is a great way to reduce your monthly utility bill, even as the costs of electricity and water rise. EWEB has several steps you can take to reduce your usage and even make your home feel more comfortable.
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Currin Substation: End of year update
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EWEB Recognized with Excellence in Communications Awards from American Public Power Association
We are proud to have been recognized with two Excellence in Public Power Communications Awards for 2023 from the American Public Power Association (APPA).
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Let's talk turkey. If a disaster strikes, is your family ready?
Many of us avoid discussing politics over the dinner table in the spirit of family peace and harmony. But here's a topic that can bring everyone together: emergency preparedness.
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EWEB now offering a Smart Thermostat rebate program
EWEB is excited to announce a new residential rebate program to provide electric customers with free or greatly discounted Smart Thermostats to customers whose primary source of heating is from an electric forced-air furnace or heat pump.
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Your EWEB Rates at Work: Investing Today for a Resilient Tomorrow
For more than a century, EWEB has planned, built, and maintained the systems that deliver safe, reliable, and environmentally responsible power and water to Eugene homes and businesses.
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EWEB Prepares for Winter Weather Year-Round
November 10, 2022
For EWEB, preparing for harsh winter storms is a year-round responsibility. While we can’t control the weather, we can make our electric infrastructure more resilient to withstand storms that bring snow, ice and wind to Eugene.
EWEB employs a full toolbox of "grid hardening" strategies, including trimming trees around power lines, replacing older equipment on a regular basis, inspecting equipment for potential problems, and practicing for widespread power outages.
Below are just a few examples of the work EWEB’s electric division does to prepare for winter weather:
Outage Response
If a widespread outage occurs, every employee at EWEB plays a role in response and restoration. From the line workers in the field to customer service agents on the phone, our staff’s ability to react and respond promptly, efficiently, and safely to a winter related emergency is crucial.
EWEB employees prepare and train for winter-related outages year-round, including practice drills that help identify gaps, develop skills, reveal resource needs, and improve internal and external coordination.
The "Blue Sky Drill" is an annual practice ahead of winter storm season. Just as we would in a real emergency event, staff activate a standardized approach to incident management during a mock winter storm scenario. Roles and teams are established for safety, planning, operations, logistics, interagency coordination, and public communication. Each team works simultaneously to coordinate and resolve issues that arise during emergency response. It enables staff to test their skills and practice working together across all departments to handle a large-scale outage restoration.
Inspection and replacement of equipment
One of our grid hardening measures during the summer months is the inspection and replacement of power pole crossarms. During high wind events, the failure of a crossarm could bring down energized power lines and potentially spark a fire. To help reduce that risk our line technician crews identify and replace older or deteriorating crossarms. We also conduct routine system maintenance to keep other electric infrastructure functioning safely and properly throughout the year. Crews regularly inspect electric lines, poles, components, and other equipment, replacing worn or older parts as needed. This work helps keep the system operating during snow, ice, and windstorms.
Vegetation Management
Winter storms and high winds can bring down distressed trees and branches on power lines that’s why we proactively prune trees and remove brush year-round to help keep the area around our equipment clear. Each year, crews trim more than 300 overhead line miles of vegetation to minimize falling trees and branches to decrease the number and duration of outages.
Electrical Vault Maintenance
Have you ever wondered where the power lines are in downtown Eugene? We have a unique underground electrical network that runs downtown. Each vault is connected to others in the underground system through ducts that run high-voltage cables between transformers.
The infrastructure is highly reliable, but EWEB crews do need to clean the vaults after the fall rainwater carries leaves and debris into the man-hole access points. Before the winter cold hits, EWEB routinely pumps out the debris using vacuum trucks and simultaneously assesses the underground cables with infrared guns that detect temperature variances which may indicate a need for repair.
Fleet Preparation
Our best practices for winter preparation occur throughout the year with a goal of increasing vehicle and equipment uptime in the winter. We winterize our vehicles and prepare our drivers and crews for winter safety. EWEB safety professionals help our crews prepare for winter conditions by providing information about safe driving practices during winter months, additional supplies to be stored in vehicles, such as water, in case they get stuck in the elements, and personal clothing suited to handle inclement weather.
EWEB has prepared our electric infrastructure and staff for whatever this winter’s weather has in store, but we need your help to prepare your home and family for a winter-related emergency.
View the following pages as you prepare for the winter ahead: