Unfortunately, power outages touch everyone’s life at one time or another, especially those who live in rural areas. While we know we cannot eliminate outages, we at CEMC strive to reduce the number of occurrences and the outage time when they do occur. Just as important, we are constantly looking for ways to get information to our customers during outages. We realize that, when there is no electricity, the question everyone needs answered is, “When will my power be restored?”. Many times, we cannot answer that question for several reasons. Hopefully, the following information will answer some of your questions as to why outages occur and what steps we take to restore your power.

 We all know power outages occur due to severe thunderstorms, high winds, tornadoes and ice storms. We are installing more of our facilities underground to protect them from Mother Nature’s wrath, but it is not feasible to bury all of our 7,500 miles of line. Other causes of power outages include severe hot or cold temperatures, automobile accidents, animals, fires, tree cutting and damaged or defective equipment. Because of the length of some of our lines, or circuits, an unsuspecting squirrel or an out-of-control vehicle ten to fifteen miles from your home can leave you without power. As we continue to build and develop rural, wooded areas, outages due to animals are becoming more frequent.

 Because we monitor our substation breakers with a computer system called “SCADA”, there are times we know your power is out before you call. However, we are made aware of most outages when members call. We have breakers throughout our system that are designed to open, or interrupt the flow of electricity, when a fault occurs. These breakers act very much like the breakers in the switch panel in your home. When you overload a circuit, or accidentally drop your hair dryer in a sink filled with water, the circuit breaker should open, for your safety and to protect other circuits and appliances in your home. The major difference between our breakers and those in your home is that ours are designed to “reclose”. When the breaker detects the fault, it opens, then automatically closes. If the fault has cleared, like a lightning strike, for instance, the breaker will remain closed and power will be restored. This is what most members refer to as a blink. Everyone has been warned since they were children to stay away from downed power lines. The fact that our breakers automatically reclose is a major reason it is so important to heed this advice.

 Since July 1, 1998, CEMC has been using an automated call answering system for outage reports. When you call in and access the system, your account information will be found automatically using Caller ID if we have your correct telephone number in our customer database, and if you call from that number.  Please keep in mind, we can only search for one phone number for your account.  Even if we have your correct “main” number, we will not find your account information if you call from your fax or modem line, or a cellular phone, and you will be prompted to leave us a message.  If you hear,  “The number you are calling from is not listed in our customer records” and are asked to leave a message, it is very important that you leave your “main” home number as well as the number you are calling from, if they are different.  The type Caller ID system we use will detect almost any number, except some cellular phone numbers.  If our system does not detect your number and you do not leave it for us, we have no means to get in touch with you. Also, when you hear the message that we cannot find the number you are calling from, we are not saying you are not our customer, only that we do not have the number you are calling from.

Click the image above to see the tool we use to track your call.

  After accessing the system, we hope you will hear,  “We have identified your  customer records using Caller ID”.  From that point on, the system is designed to show our dispatchers what buttons you pressed while you were on the line.  For instance, you are immediately asked to Press 1 if you are reporting an outage and you are not at the outage location.  After you hang up your call will appear on the computer screen and our dispatchers will know that the outage is not at the location associated with your phone number.  They know to listen to your message before sending the crew out to get the lights back on. Obviously, sending a crew to the wrong location only delays the restoration of power.  In addition, if you are calling from the outage location, you are asked to Press 2 if you have specific information about your outage that may help us restore your power sooner.  Again, our dispatchers can tell which callers pressed 2 while on the line.  They are trained to check those messages first, since 80 to 90 percent of the time we find the cause of the outage more quickly because a caller heard or saw something that points us in the right direction.

             Responding to power outages is always a top priority, whether they occur during the regular workday or after hours. Still, when we receive calls from a particular area, it normally takes some time for the crew to drive to the outage sight, unless we are fortunate enough to have a crew nearby. When we receive an outage call at any of our offices, the nearest crew is immediately dispatched to the affected area. Typically, they will have to leave the job they are working on, gather their tools and equipment, and head for the area experiencing the outage. From the time we take the first call until the crew arrives “on-site” can be can be anywhere from five to thirty minutes, maybe longer in some cases. Once they arrive, the crew must determine what device is out, where the problem is, what caused it and what repairs will be needed. Only then can they give the office employees an estimate as to when they should be able to restore power to the area. After regular work hours, we have six crews, twelve employees, “on-call” company-wide. When we receive the calls during those hours, the process is the same, but the time needed to arrive “on-site” normally takes longer. During widespread problems, some outages will last longer simply because there are so many different “cases” of trouble. Rest assured that all available personnel are working when these widespread outages occur. If the damage is severe enough, we call other electric utilities and contractors for help.

 Some of our callers leave a message asking someone to call them back to let them know why their lights are out and when we should have them back on.  We try to make those calls whenever possible, but normally we are too busy checking messages and directing our crews to make many calls out to members.  We realize it is frustrating when your power has been out for a long period of time and you have only talked to a computer that gave you no information.  One nice feature of the system is the ability to leave a message for you when you call.  If your power has been out for an hour or two, please call back and we should have some information for you.

             Hopefully, this information will help you the next time your power is out. Our top priority is to reduce the number of outages our members experience each year. When outages occur, our goal is to restore power as quickly and safely as possible, and, just as important, to provide our members the information they need and deserve. If you don’t have it already, please make a note of our twenty-four hour outage line, 800-987-2362. Our product is electricity but our business is service, so please call us whenever you need us.