Record high temperatures throughout May and June mixed with minimal precipitation across the western United States have electric companies concerned over the possibility of power outages.

Neal Stephens, general manager for Empire Electric Association, said Monday that he has received notice from Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association of the possibility of blackouts throughout the western electric grid.

"It is important to realize that these (blackouts) aren’t imminent," said Stephens. "This is simply a warning, and Tri-State has told us that if everything performs the way that it is meant to perform and we don’t have any major outages then we can probably make it through the summer without any problems."

However, Stephens said there are some serious problems with an interconnected electric system.

"Empire is connected to the Tri-State Association and Tri-State is connected to the entire western grid," said Stephens.

"With the high temperatures that are forecast for the balance of the summer and some of the record temperatures that have already been set, people are really using a lot of power. And with the increases in computer and internet use, (the electric companies) are reaching record levels," Stephens said.

"Should there be any problems in that grid or should any generating plants go down, there is some risk that they won’t be able to reach that overall demand," he said. "And because we are interconnected, there may be some problems."