Xcel Energy prepares for all possibilities with severe weather

NORTH DAKOTA & MINNESOTA (KVRR) – Local Xcel Energy leadership went over the forecast with line workers Tuesday morning.

“When Mother Nature strikes, we’re going to be there to solve it and get the power back on,” Xcel Energy Principal Manager Tony Grindberg said.

Grindberg believes it’s important to not react to severe weather, but be proactive.

“Fortunately we don’t see ice in this forecast, but a lot of wind,” Grindberg explained.

Crews are on-call and ready to move out if the power goes out. They’re stationed in the Fargo-Moorhead, Grand Forks and Minot areas and cover a large portion of North Dakota and Northwest Minnesota.

“As long as it’s a safe environment to put our crews in when an outage occurs they’ll be on-site and we’ll be aware of it often within moments of it happening,” Grindberg said.

Technology they have can give real-time updates on outages on Xcel’s website.

Even with the high amount of snow forecasted for the Twin Cities area, Xcel reassures customers its workers aren’t heading there to help out.

“Given our weather forecast here, crews are staying here. Often we’ll provide support where need be, so our territories are going to be covered as well,” Grindberg said.

Crews are prepared to solve many weather-related issues.

“The highest probability of power outages is high winds and trees and branches falling on the lines. Knocking down the lines. Transformers that go out. That’s all part of the watch list if you will,” Grindberg said.

To report an outage or see where the power is out in your area, click here.