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Herriman warns residents of possible outages after Rocky Mountain Power ups wildfire-safety sensitivity
Summary
Herriman officials relayed that Rocky Mountain Power will raise protection sensitivity in Butterfield Canyon and Rose Canyon to reduce wildfire risk, a move that may cause brief, precautionary outages while crews check lines.
Herriman communications manager John LaFollette said Rocky Mountain Power told Salt Lake County and cities it would move to higher-sensitivity grid settings in certain wildland-adjacent canyons to reduce ignition risk. Two affected areas mentioned on the June 13 Herriminology podcast were Butterfield Canyon and Rose Canyon.
LaFollette explained the safety rationale: the utility will set circuits to de-energize more quickly if a line experiences a disturbance (for example, a falling branch or strong wind), so the line will be de-energized by the time it hits the ground and be less likely to start a wildfire. "The idea is that so that the power shuts off very quickly... by the time the wire hits the ground, if the power line goes down, it's already de-energized and it doesn't, start a fire," he said.
He warned, however, that higher sensitivity increases the chance of short service interruptions for minor disturbances; Rocky Mountain Power plans to have crews inspect lines and re-energize circuits after confirming there is no damage. No specific outage schedule or restoration timelines were provided on the podcast.
Officials framed the change as a tradeoff: a higher likelihood of short outages versus reduced wildfire risk in vulnerable canyon corridors. Residents were advised to expect possible outages this summer and to prepare accordingly.
