County emergency officials press Black Hills Energy on planned power shutoffs, urge local coordination
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Summary
Pennington County emergency managers and public-safety officials raised questions about Black Hills Energy’s plan to de-energize power lines during extreme wildfire risk, seeking local data, notification thresholds and support for residents who depend on electricity for medical devices.
Pennington County emergency management officials on June 17 pressed Black Hills Energy for details about the utility’s planned public safety power shutdowns — preemptive de-energizations of lines intended to reduce wildfire ignitions — and asked for sharper, local coordination to protect medically vulnerable residents and critical infrastructure.
Dustin Willett, Pennington County director of emergency management, told the Board of Commissioners the tool is already in use in other Western states and that local planning must focus on residents who rely on electricity for life-sustaining medical devices, on water systems that need electric pumps, and on telecommunication and public-notification capabilities. “Our concern is if these shutdowns are long duration — and our definition for long duration power loss is over 24 hours — there are cascading consequences,” Willett said.
Willett and other county officials said they have been meeting with Black Hills Energy (BHE) and are seeking data the county needs to estimate the scope of harm: the number and locations of electricity-dependent medical-device users, the mapping of distribution circuits that could be de-energized, and inventories of wells, lift stations and other critical infrastructure that lack backup power.
Steven Dunn, vice president of pipeline compliance and asset management at Black Hills Energy, told the commissioners BHE treats a public safety power shutoff as a “tool of last resort” and that the company uses site-specific weather and fuel-condition data to make decisions. “A public safety power shutoff is not like the first lever that we look to pull,” Dunn said, adding the company is aiming for targeted outages and earlier, proactive notifications so customers can prepare. Dunn said the company uses localized weather stations and meteorologists and that historical shutoffs elsewhere have an average duration around 48 hours, though the range varies.
County officials pressed specific operational and policy questions: what geographic units would be de-energized; how many customers could be affected; how much advance notice customers can expect; whether telecom systems and water systems would remain reliable; and who would pay for large-scale public response operations if outages drive costly sheltering, water distribution or medical shelter needs.
Mark Hughes, chief deputy sheriff, said first responders and dispatch centers want clearer rules for response and public messaging. “This is touted as a public safety initiative, and the public is not ready for this to take place,” Hughes told the commission. Stephanie Olsen, deputy director of the county 9-1-1 center, said the dispatch center will push non-emergency questions to 211 and is preparing ways to send callers direct links to maps and guidance to reduce call volumes.
Willett described three near-term lines of work for emergency management: (1) map the likely course of harm by overlaying vulnerable populations (for example, people on oxygen) with circuits that may be affected; (2) ramp up public-preparedness messaging — including guidance for food, water and generator safety; and (3) finalize response plans and cost estimates for logistics such as community reception centers, bottled water distribution and limited sheltering. He said the county is coordinating with the state Department of Health on an “EMPOWER” dataset of electrically dependent medical-device users.
Black Hills Energy said it has been sharing information with local stakeholders and is building customer-facing web tools and notifications. Dunn said the company is working to reduce impacts by isolating high-risk segments where possible and upgrading equipment, and emphasized that shutoffs are not triggered by routine “red flag” days but by more extreme combinations of wind, humidity and local fuel conditions.
Commissioners and county staff asked BHE to provide more granular, circuit-level maps and to continue direct engagement with county emergency planners, fire districts and law enforcement. The county also requested clarity on timelines and financing if local jurisdictions must support large-scale response operations.
No formal action was taken; county staff said they would continue regular meetings with Black Hills Energy and push for the datasets and mapping the county needs to finalize response plans and public-notification protocols.
