Stay informed. Know how to get the latest updates when an outage happens.

• Update your contact information if needed.

Make a plan. Whether you have special medical needs or livestock to water, make sure you’re ready to meet your unique needs, and those of your loved ones, during a long outage.

• Prepare for medical needs like refrigerated medicine or electrically powered medical equipment.
• Build a summer outage kit.
• Find a way to feed and water pets or livestock in case well pumps don’t have power.

Stay safe if the power goes out. If the lights do go out, know how to stay safe and minimize the impact of the outage.

• To protect your appliances, machinery, and equipment, turn off any that were in use when the power went out. Make sure to turn off electric ranges to prevent a fire if you’re away when power is restored. Keep one light on so you know when power has been restored.
• After power has been restored for about 10 minutes, begin turning back on appliances and lighting in 10-minute phases. This keeps circuits from overloading and helps to more quickly and safely restore everyone’s power.
• If you notice a downed power line, stay as far away as possible but at least 100 feet and report it to Idaho Power by calling 1-800-488-6151.

Learn more about how to prepare for summer outages.

• Prepare now for medical needs like refrigerated medicine or electrically powered medical equipment. This could mean finding a place you can go during an outage or using a backup generator.
• Call 211 for community resources during an emergency.
• For medical emergencies, call 911.

If you already have a My Account profile, you can easily update or confirm your contact information. Don’t have My Account yet? Visit our registration page to set up an online profile. We’ll walk you through a few easy steps to get you started.

You can also update your contact information in the space provided on the bottom of your bill before you send it in or call us at 1-800-488-6151.

Here are ways you can help protect our communities from wildfire:

• Monitor and obey fire restrictions.
• Use designated fire rings provided at campgrounds.
• Fully extinguish your campfire after use.
• Follow all firework laws and keep a hose nearby when lighting fireworks.
• Consider using glow sticks instead of sparklers.
• Never park or start a vehicle on dry grass.
• Keep trailer chains from dragging along roads.
• Check trailer tires for proper air pressure and ensure the rubber is in good condition.
• Never throw cigarettes from vehicles.
• Obtain appropriate fire permits (depending on type and location of fire).
• Create a defensible space around your home.
• Have a power outage kit ready.

Idaho Power is investing in grid improvements to protect the grid from wildfires and reduce the chance of starting fires. We’re also:

• Upgrading poles, conductors, and switches.
• Increasing equipment inspections by ground and air.
• Wrapping wood poles with fire-resistant mesh.
• Adding spark-prevention equipment to power lines in highest-risk areas.
• Monitoring and clearing vegetation around power lines.
• Treating ground around wood poles to keep vegetation from becoming fuel for fires.
• Making powerlines trip faster when something touches them and keeping them from automatically re-energizing after momentary faults.
• Conducting daily weather forecasts during wildfire season to monitor fire risk and change our operations if necessary.
• Burying strategically chosen sections of overhead lines.
• Using infrared imaging and other technologies to monitor equipment for defects.
• Implementing enhanced protection settings on our lines when wildfire risk is elevated.

Our Wildfire Mitigation Plan assesses wildfire risk in every corner of our service area to make sure we’re operating in a safe, responsible manner.

A PSPS is the last resort in wildfire prevention, but should one be necessary, it is guided by the following goals:

• Safety: protecting employees, customers, and the general public
• Collaboration: working with customers and public safety partners
• Minimizing risk: working to reduce the risk of wildfire but also the impacts of extended power outages
• Reliability: protecting people and equipment to restore reliable service to our customers and communities

Sometimes, Idaho Power shuts off certain power lines when a fire is burning toward them. We do this to keep the fire from damaging the lines and to protect firefighters, company employees, and the public.

A PSPS is different because Idaho Power would shut off power to certain lines before a fire started to reduce the risk of ignition in extreme conditions.

Idaho Power has identified zones across our service area with elevated wildfire risk. For details, visit our Protecting the Grid page.  We have changed operations in these zones to reduce the risk of wildfire during the fire season. These zones receive intensive inspection and vegetation management and are subject to special equipment and operational practices to reduce the risk of wildfire. All customers should be prepared for outages, including the possibility of a PSPS. Customers living in or near wildfire risk zones are more likely than others to experience a PSPS.

A PSPS would last as long as the weather conditions that prompted it, plus any time needed to patrol the lines before safely re-energizing it. After the weather has passed, patrolling lines ensures that no damage, such as falling trees, has occurred. Once those problems were resolved and Idaho Power determined it was safe, the company would re-energize the line. This process could last several hours or even days. If storm damage occurs, restoration could take longer.

When outages occur during high wildfire risk conditions, we patrol our lines before we turn them back on. Sometimes we can patrol with drones or helicopters. Other times that work happens by truck or on foot or ATV. Some areas can be patrolled at night, but others cannot. Patrolling our lines helps us find any damage or hazards that could increase the risk for fires or prolonged outages if we re-energize.

Idaho Power has had a PSPS plan in place since 2022, but July 24, 2024 was the first time we had to call a PSPS. The decision was due to the combination of a strong wind event — gusts up to 60 mph in the Boise area — and increased fire risk. Most utilities in the west have PSPS programs in place as we encounter extreme weather more often.

In some cases, we do. For example, in 2023, we buried a 1.2-mile stretch of distribution line in an area near Pocatello where wildfire risk is especially high.

But putting power lines underground costs much more than building them overhead. To keep our customers’ bills affordable, we build most lines overhead.

Developers of many new housing projects pay extra to bury lines inside and immediately surrounding the homes. They do this primarily for aesthetic reasons. In Blaine County, customers will pay a surcharge on their bills for about 20 years to cover the cost of burying distribution and transmission lines near Highway 75.

Underground powerlines, which are found in some neighborhoods, often are connected to overhead powerlines. In some cases, due to extreme conditions, we might need to de-energize overhead powerlines that deliver energy to underground lines, shutting off power for all customers “downstream” of those overhead lines.