A widespread electrical outage affected South Dakota and Wyoming on November 13, impacting multiple utilities in the region. The disruption was triggered by a regional transmission event that caused several generation facilities and substations to go offline, including those operated by Black Hills Energy.
Black Hills Energy reported that its system was also affected by the incident. In response, the company initiated a phased restoration process to ensure system safety and stability. “To protect system safety and stability, we are using a phased process to restore power. It is critical that our power facilities ramp up slowly to prevent damage to the system. We appreciate your patience and will continue working this evening to restore service to all impacted customers. Estimated restoration time is 10 p.m.” Black Hills Energy stated.
As of 2:30 p.m., approximately half of the affected customers had their power restored, according to updates from Black Hills Energy. The company noted that during the restoration process, some customers might experience short or intermittent outages, such as lights blinking or flickering.
The outage originated from an event on the regional transmission grid outside of Black Hills Energy’s service area but led to significant impacts within its territory. “We are responding to a large-scale regional electrical outage in South Dakota and Wyoming caused by a transmission facility located outside of our system. We have activated our response plan, and our personnel are well-trained to respond to events of this type,” said the company.
Customers were advised on several safety precautions during the outage, including keeping refrigerator and freezer doors closed, using flashlights instead of candles, not operating generators indoors or in enclosed spaces, and treating non-functional traffic signals as four-way stops.
Black Hills Energy emphasized its commitment to customer safety throughout the restoration efforts: “The safety of our customers and systems continues to be our highest priority. We appreciate your patience as our crews work to restore service.”
For ongoing updates about outages and restoration progress, customers were encouraged to visit Black Hills Energy’s official website at blackhillsenergy.com/outages or follow their social media channels such as https://www.facebook.com/blackhillsenergy/.
