PSREC restores electric and internet services damaged by Sugar Fire

Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative and Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications announced today that both electric and internet services have been restored to the areas damaged by the Sugar Fire.

The fire burned through PSREC’s transmission line with under-build distribution lines four times—damaging poles and materials—causing brief outages. The fire continued to burn in the town of Doyle, destroying several distribution-feeder pole lines.

PSREC’s vegetation management and firefighting efforts performed by line crews greatly reduced system damage and member outages.

Crews have made temporary repairs to transmission and distribution poles to restore service to members and will replace approximately 15 transmission structures and 60 distribution poles at a later date, with possible short scheduled outages. Twenty two miles of fiber-optic cable was repaired and an additional seven miles of fiber-optic cable was replaced to restore internet services locally and to the region.

The utilities thanked Lassen Municipal Utility District, Truckee PUD and Surprise Valley Electric Corp. for offering mutual aid assistance and materials to help with restoration efforts; as well the line crew members and contract crews for their dedication to restoring services as quickly as possible to PSREC members and PST customers. Line crews and contractors began repairs and pole replacements as soon as it was safe to do so.

The utilities also thanked their members and customers for their patience and understanding while restoration efforts were underway.