Chocolates, flowers and helium-filled metallic balloons are popular Valentine’s Day gifts. Hold tight to those balloons on Feb. 14, though, as they can be a headache for energy companies.

February typically marks the onset of an increase in outages caused by metallic balloons as they float off from Valentine’s day gifts, officials said. Last year, foil balloons were to blame for ...

February sees an increase in balloon outages, due to their popularity as a Valentine's Day gift. In recent years, the company's observed outages due to foil balloons have gone down. "We have seen ...