Many residents in Genoa, southwest Reno, Galena, Virginia City Highlands, Washoe Valley, and parts of Carson saw their power turned off as part of a Public Safety Outage Management.
At one point the outage impacted about 15,000 customers.
NV Energy issued the PSOM due to high winds and dry fuels that could cause a wildfire to spread very quickly if a tree were to fall into a power line and create a spark.
Some residents in the Callahan Ranch area were very upset with the decision to cut the power.
Generators could be heard all throughout the neighborhoods on Wednesday.
Those residents have seen their power turned off due to the Davis and Callahan fires just this year.
In regard to the public safety outage, people say that winds aren't anything new or unusual to the area.
"The winds were blowing a lot worse a couple days ago and the power wasn't shut off," said Shelley Buchanan, Callahan Ranch resident. "Actually, this wind is pretty normal for this area. I've seen wind like this for 40 years since I've lived up here and power hasn't been turned off."
Paul Fremeau, who is a Meteorologist for NV Energy says that during weather events they deem extreme, they create an incident management team.
It's made up of two meteorologists and an incident commander.
On Wednesday, Fremeau says they saw gusts up to 70 miles an hour in some areas.
NV Energy says that while winds might not be strong in your backyard, the lines connecting to your neighborhood may be in worse conditions.
"Some communities may walk outside and it's not that windy, but those power lines are crossing a canyon a mile up the road and are exposed to 80 mile an hour wind gusts," Fremeau said.
The company says incidents like the Camp Fire, that destroyed Paradise, California after being sparked by a power line is a contributing factor as to why they are doing this.
"We have examples all over the western U.S. where the power was not shut off. Ultimately, electric equipment caused the fire and people's lives were lost and properties were lost, and we just don't think it's appropriate to take that risk," said Jesse Murray, Vice President of Electric Delivery, NV Energy.
Some neighbors think a potential solution to all of this would be to put the lines underground.
"I will pay you extra if you bury the lines," Buchanan said. "I talked with my neighbors, and they would be willing to pitch in an extra 20 to 30 bucks a month."
When asking NV Energy about this, they say it would be quite expensive.
"It's not a magic wand," Murray said. "It would cost a whole lot of money to bury all of our lines, and it could take decades."
The PSOM program started back in 2020. This is the first time it's been implemented in the Reno area, but it came after the legislative session.
"So, the public safety outages are actually part of a Nevada law that was passed in 2019," Murray said. "Senate Bill 329 created the Natural Disaster Plan. PSOM are a part of that plan."
NV Energy are the ones that make the call on the public safety outages, but every three years they must go to Nevada's Public Utilities Commission to get plans approved.
They can add amendments to the plan if they feel something is not working.
