As we are now in hurricane season, as well as the unofficial “thunderstorm-every-afternoon” season, I thought this month’s column would be an opportunity to share some helpful information about our outage restoration process. Here are five things to keep in mind when the lights go out.
1. We need you. When your power goes out, it might be just at your home or a small section of your neighborhood. While our outage management software is state-of-the-art, notifying us automatically by our metering system, it is still a good idea to let us know when your power goes out. To report outages, call us at (800) 342-0990, visit our website at CHELCO.com, or download the MyCHELCO app, both of which have convenient outage reporting tools.
2. It’s a team effort. When you are faced with an outage, our focus is on safely restoring power as quickly as possible. During widespread outages, we have all hands on deck, fielding calls, surveying damage, clearing hazards, keeping everyone informed and rebuilding damaged lines to get your power back on as soon as we can.
3. We prioritize the largest outages first. During widespread outages, our focus is on safely restoring power to as many members as we can as quickly as possible. This means that our crews will prioritize largest outages first and will work until every member has been restored.
4. You should have a backup plan. We do our best to help those who need it, but if you depend on electricity for life support purposes, you must have a back-up plan. Remember, we don’t always know how long restoration efforts will take. If you’re unsure what to do, please call your emergency services.
5. Sometimes it’s a waiting game. We work diligently to restore power to our members when our lines and equipment is damaged, but sometimes, it’s out of our control. If a major transmission line goes down, which is rare, we must first wait for those repairs to be made before we can energize our substations.
We do our best to avoid power disruptions, but they are inevitable from time to time. If the lights go out, remember that your co-op team is working safely to quickly restore power to all those affected.
