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When the extent of storm damage to the electrical system is severe and widespread throughout the area,
Company personnel cannot respond to every outage at once. Restoration activities must be prioritized.
In all situations, the safety of the public as well as those working to restore service is always the
overriding priority.
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Public Safety Hazards
Our first priority is to quickly address public safety hazards, such as wires that are down
across major highways, burning wires or equipment or building fires. REMEMBER – Always
assume that downed power lines are energized and dangerous.
While downed power lines are being handled, Company personnel continue to assess the total
damage to the electrical system's infrastructure and begin restoring service.
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Transmission and Subtransmission Lines
Repairing transmission and subtransmission lines is our next priority. These lines transport
electricity at high voltages from power stations to substations throughout the Company’s
service area. The transmission system must be repaired before work begins in local areas.
How Electricity Is Made
explains the flow of electricity from the power station to the customers.
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Public Health and Safety Facilities
Repair work that restores power to essential facilities that provide emergency services is a high
priority. This includes hospitals, police, fire and emergency facilities, water and sanitary
authorities, etc.
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Substations
Substations are our next focus. Substations provide critical linking and switching functions as
power is transferred from transmission lines to the distribution lines that deliver power to
homes and businesses.
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Major Circuits
We continue rebuilding our system by next focusing on major circuits as we strive to restore
power to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible.
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Small Neighborhoods
Once major circuits have been repaired, restoration efforts focus on smaller neighborhoods
and groups of customers served by a single transformer.
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Individual Homes
Finally, service to individual homes and businesses is restored as crews repair “service
drops” (the wires that bring electricity from the nearest pole to an individual building).
During outages, some customers may have power restored while their neighbors remain without service. This
may occur because not all circuits are repaired at the same time and different circuits may serve different
parts of the same neighborhood. Even houses on the same street might be served by different circuits or
different transformers.
In major storms, some customers may remain without power longer because the electrical lines are temporarily
inaccessible to work crews due to fallen trees, flooding, ice or other conditions that must be addressed before
the electrical facilities can be repaired.
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