Restoring Your Power During a major outage, our crews begin restoring service as quickly as possible once safe conditions are established. Under our priority system, repair crews typically first address problems with transmission lines and substations that serve large numbers of customers, and restore critical customers such as hospitals and public safety facilities. While those problems are being resolved, crews also begin to work on substations and primary lines that serve many customers. Crews then target secondary lines that serve local neighborhoods. Lines and transformers within neighborhoods and the wires that connect them to homes and businesses come next—starting with areas that involve the most customers.
After Power is Restored As the system comes back to life, it may take a while to return to normal. After your power is restored, be prepared for additional power outages. Equipment may fail and trees weakened by the storm may fall, resulting in the need for additional repairs. Consider the following:
- If you drained your plumbing system, refill your pipes only after heat is restored to your home or building. Check your entire system carefully for leaks.
- If your home has flooding, check with an electrician before turning on anything.
- Once power is restored, reconnect your appliances one at a time to avoid overloading your circuits.
- After a prolonged outage, check food in your refrigerator or freezer carefully. If in doubt, throw it out.
- If your neighbors get their power back, but you don't, call us at 1-800-867-5222.
Our first priority is to clear power lines and restore power as quickly and safely as possible. While we will remove broken utility poles, it's your responsibility to remove broken or damaged trees and limbs.
