liberty utility

Stateline power outage caused by water in underground vault

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Liberty Utility and NV Energy customers in the Stateline area were without power for several hours Sunday evening and early Monday due to water that got into an unground vault on the California side. This required significant additional work to safely restore power to the six Nevada customers and 426 California customers.

Power outage in South Lake Tahoe

3:45 p.m. update: Crews have been able to re-route power to re-energize most customers. The remaining customers are expected to be re-energized by 5:30 pm and then crews will focus on the long term repairs through the night.

3:20 p.m. update: Power has been restored to about half of those affected by the earlier outage. Liberty Utilities says the remaining 3,184 customers should have power restored by 3:41 p.m.

Solar workshop in South Lake Tahoe for homeowners and businesses

Event Date: 
February 20, 2019 - 5:30pm

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Have you been curious about using solar energy at your South Lake Tahoe home or business? Curious if we can use the panels on our snow-covered roofs?

Liberty Utilities is holding a free solar workshop in South Lake Tahoe on February 20 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the library to provide information on solar energy and their Solar Incentive Program.

Residents evacuated in Alpine County fire

8:00 p.m. UPDATE: The evacuation of the Hung A Lei Ti neighborhood in Woodfords has been lifted and residents may return home. Power has been restored. According to the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center, the fire size has been changed to 204.5 acres and containment lines are growing.

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The Washoe Tribe's Hung A Lel Ti community in Woodfords has been evacuated after the Dutch Fire started in Alpine County early Wednesday morning. At last count, 244 acres have burned and the fire is 5 percent contained.

Liberty Utilities awards scholarships to students in their communities

Liberty Utilities has awarded scholarhips to students living within their service territory for the past six years. Awardees attend one of six high schools and one community college students.

The sixth annual group of awardees:

South Tahoe High School – David Holmes
Loyalton High School – Cassandra Garcia
Coleville High School – Crystal Lowe-Rasmussen
North Tahoe High School – Ryland Lubin
Portola High School – Eric Jacobsen
Truckee High School – Megan Burrill
Lake Tahoe Community College – Justin Pease

Liberty Utilities awards scholarships to students at LTCC, STHS and more

Liberty Utilities has announced the winners of its annual high school and community college scholarships for students living within the utility’s service territory. This is the fifth consecutive year that Liberty has provided these awards.

South Tahoe High School – Emily Doyle
Loyalton High School – Sequoia Bergstrom
Douglas High School – Hunter Celio
Coleville High School – Slone McCann
North Tahoe High School – Lionel Pascal
Portola High School – Christina Silva
Truckee High School – Julia Meyer
Lake Tahoe Community College – Hannah Brown

Widespread power outages along Lake Tahoe's north and west shores

9:30 p.m. update:
Portola: Trees fell on primary line; crews on site making repairs; most customers should be restored by 10 pm.
River Road/Silver Creek/Fir Crags Road/Hwy 89. Avalanche danger and weather conditions prohibiting crews from accessing damage; customers should plan on multi-day outage. We hope to access Weds morning.
Ward Canyon: broken pole; estimate most customers restored by 10 pm.

Areas of South Lake Tahoe experiencing power outage

6:45 p.m. update - The remaining 131 El Dorado County customers without power should expect it to be restored by midnight at the latest according to the Liberty Utilities outage website.

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5:20 p.m. update - Power has been restored to almost all of the Liberty Utility customers. At this time just 136 remain without electricity.

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Are you ready for the next Lake Tahoe snowstorm?

Long time South Lake Tahoe locals have been heard in town saying, "This is just like winter used to be." Without many serious snowstorms in the past several years, forecasts of 2-3' feet are catching many by surprise as they find themselves unprepared.

The City of South Lake Tahoe is reaching out to residents with advice to stay safe, how to be prepared, how to handle berms, and updates on the City's preparations.

Friday-Saturday, January 20-21

Lake Tahoe residents still dealing with power outages

Power outages are still plaguing Lake Tahoe area residents and businesses, and Liberty Utility crews have been working nonstop to deal with the issues caused by the blizzard. There are currently approximately 20,000 customers without power in El Dorado, Placer and Nevada counties.

"All Liberty Utilities and NV Energy crews have worked together through the night," said Liberty Utilities spokesperson Kathy Carter. "Because of the numerous large trees that have fallen through lines and wires down, it is causing the restoration process to be very slow working one community at a time."

Most Liberty Utilities customers on West Shore should have power restored Monday

6:00 p.m. update Monday - Power is back on to all but 50 customers along the West shore. Liberty Utilities said their crews were able to rebuild a major transmission line today that serves the West Shore. The 50 customers still without power are along SR-89 between Squaw Valley and Truckee as well as in a couple of scattered areas. With the snow coming down hard now, Liberty will continue to monitor this line as well as work on restoring power to those customers without service.

Liberty Utilities asks for customers to be prepared for power outages

Weather conditions are expected to worsen over the weekend and increased power outages are anticipated. Liberty Utilities is doing all possible for preventative measures, however they are urging their customers to be prepared.

The utility company has added additional line crews for the weekend in preparation and will address the most serious and potential safety situations in priority.

They are asking customers to only call in case of an emergency 1-844-245-6868.

City of South Lake Tahoe warns residents and visitors of major weather event

If the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast is correct, South Lake Tahoe could see the largest rain/snow weather event since the memorable floods of 1997 and 2005.

Those traveling to South Lake Tahoe, and those that live here, are being warned to be prepared for the storm which is slated to reach the Sierra overnight Saturday and last until Monday.

Over 3,000 Liberty Utilities customers without power in Meyers and West Shore area

2:15 p.m. update - All power has been restored to Liberty Utility customers in Lake Tahoe.

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9:30 a.m. update - About 394 Liberty Utility customers are still affected by the power outage on Grizzly Mtn Drive, Arapahoe Street, Kickapoo, Snowflake, South Upper Truckee Drive, Reindeer Way, Woodchuck Court, St. Nick Way, Santa Claus in Christmas Valley. They expect to have all back on line by 11:30 a.m. today.

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Electric rates go up January 1 for Liberty Utility customers

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, CALIF. - Beginning January 1, 2017, customers of Liberty Utilities will see an increase in their electric bills from just under one percent to 17 percent.

The average residential small business customer will see a small increase, while larger commercial customers will see substantial change in their bills (A1 customers less than one percent, A2 16 percent and A3, 17 percent). Rates would have been higher had savings in fuel and energy costs been figured in.

Scam targeting South Lake Tahoe businesses

Two South Lake Tahoe businesses lost almost $1,000 each this past week when scammers called them, demanding payment of an electrical bill or their power would be shut off.

In both cases, individuals claiming to represent Liberty Utilities called the businesses and demanded payment. The business owners were directed to purchase a prepaid credit card and then call them back with the card number.

Liberty Utilities representatives will not place calls to customers for payment.

Scammers targeting Lake Tahoe utility customers

Liberty Utilities is once again warning the public of both phone and email scams targeting utility customers that appears to becoming more aggressive. Other utilities in the Lake Tahoe region have also been experiencing these calls.

Liberty Utilities awards scholarships to seven students

Liberty Utilities has announced the winners of their annual high school and community college scholarships for students living within the utility’s service territory.

South Tahoe High School – Priya Patel
Loyalton High School – Cheyenne Little
Coleville High School – Joel Gomez
North Tahoe High School – Johanna Gur
Portola High School – Saul Juarez
Truckee High School – Aaron Kuyper
Lake Tahoe Community College – Antonio Benitez

Power being restored in South Lake Tahoe; Trees being cleared off lines and roadways

High winds kept emergency personnel busy throughout the day on Thursday. Downed power lines and trees wrecked havoc on the South Shore where many residents were without power for much of the day and evening.

A 200 ft tall tree fell at St. Theresa's Catholic Church just before noon. A photo of the tree barely missing the statue of St. Theresa in front of the church made it to the national news via Associated Press according to Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District Marshall Eric Guevin. Most of the damage was to the tree.

8,800 Liberty Utility customers without power in South Lake Tahoe

As of 12:30 p.m. today, Liberty Utilities reports that they are currently experiencing numerous outages related to high winds and, in some cases, trees falling into distribution power lines in both South Lake and North Lake Tahoe. Exact number of customers affected by these smaller outages is being determined.

However, we know that 8,800 Liberty customers in South Lake Tahoe have been affected by an outage involving our Meyers Substation which is, in part, fed by NV Energy.

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