BELLEVILLE, Ill. – From weddings to graduations, May is a season of celebrations. 

Those special occasions are sometimes marked with balloon releases. An unintended consequence of letting go can be power outages.

“Especially during graduation time, we will see somewhere throughout our service territory a number of outages, some big, some small, simply because somebody released balloons in the air,” said Brian Bretsch, Ameren Illinois spokesman.

He said mylar balloons, which contain a metallic coating, can conduct electricity when becoming entangled in power lines.

“The potential for a power outage is real,” Bretsch said. He said Ameren created a power outage category dedicated to balloons because of the number of outages caused by balloons.

According to Bretsch, since 2021, balloons have caused more than 170 power outages for Ameren customers in Missouri and Illinois, affecting approximately 14,000 customers.

He adds that whether it’s a mylar or rubber balloon that gets entangled in power lines, both can burst, requiring crews to respond and remove debris.

“Anytime we send anybody up into the energized zone, there’s always safety and there’s always risk, and we’d rather reduce that risk by simply asking our customers to dispose of the balloons properly,” Bretsch said.

He said studies have also shown balloons can cause harm to wildlife. 

“Ameren doesn’t want to be known as the balloon police,” Bretsch said. “We certainly want people to celebrate with balloons.”

His hope is the next time a celebration is planned, any balloons brought to the party will not be disposed of by letting them fly away.