June 16, 2026
Okanogan County Electric Cooperative Moves to “Yellow” Status of Wildfire Mitigation Plan
The OCEC Operations Department has moved into summer wildfire season system monitoring. This means that the crew has disabled the automatic reclosing on the field recloser circuit breakers and we are now operating in our “Yellow” operations status.
These reclosers will be disabled until the end of fire season, typically the end of October. When a red-flag warning is issued by the National Weather Service for our area, OCEC will disable the reclosers at the Twisp and Winthrop substations until the warning is lifted.
Disabling reclosers will typically have the effect of both lengthening the duration and increasing the number of outages, while reducing the possibility of “sparks” from contacts to the line. A recloser is an automatic high-voltage electric switch that operates much like a circuit breaker in your home. When the reclosers are set on “non-reclose” and a fault occurs on the line, the breaker will operate/open and the line will be de-energized until OCEC crews can manually inspect the line for problems. Once the line is manually inspected and is confirmed all-clear, the line will be re-energized. This safety process will create longer more frequent outages during this season.
For more information, please review our full Wildfire Mitigation Plan
To report an outage always call (509) 996-2228.
