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About Outages


What causes outages?

An outage is when your lights go off and stay off for more than a few seconds. This can be caused for a variety of reasons, including storms, downed trees, or even a vehicle hitting a power line pole.

Learn more about what can cause outages, and how we work to restore power when they occur.

Weather

During a storm, falling trees or flying debris can damage lines or and poles, and in the winter, snow and ice can accumulate and weigh down lines and trees.

Never go near a downed line!

Vegetation

Trees are the most common cause of outages, and anything from a broken limb to a branch simply touching the line can cause a service interruption.

Wildlife

Animals, particularly squirrels, can damage lines and cause outages, both directly or indirectly.

Accidents

Outages can occur when anything from vehicles to construction machinery damages our lines, whether they're above or below the ground. 

Call 811 before you dig!


Our restoration process

Our monitoring systems detect outages when they occur, and our restoration teams always work hard to make each outage as brief as possible.

1. Vital Community Services

Restoring power to community services such as hospitals, emergency and public safety services, and water and sewage stations is always first priority.

2. Highest Impact

Next, we focus on repairs that return power to the greatest number of customers in the least amount of time.

3. Smaller lines

Finally, we repair smaller lines until crews get down to individual lines in neighborhoods. We won’t stop until power has been restored to every customer.

Report a Street Light Outage

Light out on your street? Use our interactive map tool to let us know exaclty where the outage is located.