There are a number of reasons members can be without power. Listed below are some of the most common causes.
Storms: Wind, lightning, ice and snow are the most common causes of widespread outages.
Trees: High winds sometimes cause branches to come in contact with powerlines. If your lights often blink on windy days, tree branches in the powerlines may be the cause: please call 651-463-6201 so we can investigate.
Vehicles: Motor vehicles sometimes crash into utility poles or other equipment and cause outages.
Animals: Squirrels, birds and other animals may contact lines and cause short circuits.
Excavation digging: Shovels or other digging equipment can cause damage to underground cables.
High power demand: Heat waves and other times of unusually high power demand can overload our equipment and cause an outage or cause equipment previously weakened by lightning to fail.