Winter ice storms and summer severe weather have led to numerous, long term power outages in cities across the region. Some of those power companies may have to make some expensive decisions. Chris Nelson, vice chair of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission says those companies may be forced to look at moving power lines underground…
Nelson said many rural cooperatives have already put much of their wiring underground…
Nelson says the PUC will act if they hear enough from utility customers….
The Huron area has seen outages both with a winter storm that knocked out power to the Alpena area for a day and in the recent June 21st wind storm. Sioux Falls had a major outage due to an April ice storm, while the Twin Cities and Omaha have seen outages due to severe weather this summer.