10 things you might not know about power restoration

Have you ever watched a movie or TV show where a per­son is cook­ing a meal, then sud­den­ly snap their fin­gers and the meal is plat­ed and ready to eat? That’s called a jump cut. While we wish we could jump cut from a pow­er out­age to pow­er restora­tion, it can often take a lot more effort and peo­ple to make it hap­pen.

As CEO of Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, I’m accus­tomed to mem­bers’ ques­tions about pow­er out­ages and why it can take time to get the lights back on. Giv­en our reliance on elec­tric­i­ty, there’s sim­ply nev­er a good time to be with­out it.

I’d like to shed light on our restora­tion process to help our mem­bers under­stand what may be hap­pen­ing behind the scenes.

Here are 10 things you might not know about pow­er restora­tion:

1. You play a part. When your pow­er goes out, it might be just at your home or small sec­tion of a neigh­bor­hood. There is a chance we may not know about it and no one has report­ed it. When you report your out­age online or call us at (800) 421‑2343, you help us respond quick­ly and effec­tive­ly— help­ing not only you but pos­si­bly your neigh­bors.

2. Our employ­ees might be affect­ed, too. Because Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive is a local elec­tric coop­er­a­tive owned by the mem­bers we serve, our employ­ees are local. They are your neigh­bors, friends and famil­iar com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teers. They might even live on your street. When you’re with­out pow­er, our peo­ple might be, too.

3. It’s a team effort. A vari­ety of Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive employ­ees are work­ing to get your pow­er restored as soon as pos­si­ble. Our cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tives are tak­ing your calls, engi­neers and field staff are sur­vey­ing dam­age, the veg­e­ta­tion man­age­ment team is clear­ing haz­ards, dis­patch­ers are orga­niz­ing crews, ware­house employ­ees are prep­ping sup­plies and com­mu­ni­ca­tors are keep­ing every­one informed of progress or poten­tial dan­gers. When your pow­er goes out, we all work togeth­er as quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble to get you back to nor­mal. you ever dri­ve past one of our vehi­cles, please slow down.)

4. We assess the sit­u­a­tion first. Every out­age is dif­fer­ent, and we don’t know how dan­ger­ous it is or what equip­ment might need to be replaced. When respond­ing to out­ages, we first need to see what hap­pened, then deter­mine what mate­ri­als we need and a plan for how to fix the problem(s) with­out com­pro­mis­ing elec­tric flow for the rest of our mem­bers.

5. Restora­tion is nor­mal­ly pri­or­i­tized by the largest num­ber of mem­bers we can get back on in the short­est amount of time. Our crews focus on respond­ing first to pub­lic safe­ty issues and crit­i­cal ser­vices like hos­pi­tals. Then, we com­plete work that impacts the largest num­ber of peo­ple first.

6. Our employ­ees face many dan­gers. Besides work­ing around high- volt­age elec­tric­i­ty, our crews are on alert for wild ani­mals, weath­er ele­ments, falling trees and fast-mov­ing cars. (If you ever dri­ve past one of our vehi­cles, please slow down.)

7. Flick­er­ing lights can be a good sign. Some folks mis­take flick­er­ing lights for out­ages or surges, but these blinks are impor­tant because they indi­cate our equip­ment works and pre­vents a pos­si­ble out­age like­ly caused by stray tree limbs on the lines.

8. You need a back­up plan. We do our best to help those who need it, but if you depend on elec­tric­i­ty for life sup­port pur­pos­es, a back­up plan is a must. We don’t always know how long restora­tion efforts will take. If you’re unsure what to do, call us so we can help you pre­pare an emer­gency loca­tion.

9. Our employ­ees have to plan and eat. If you ever see our trucks in a restau­rant park­ing lot while your pow­er is out, know that some­times our employ­ees hud­dle in a safe, com­mon area to map out their plan for get­ting your pow­er back on. Also, our crews work long, hard hours dur­ing out­ages and need to take time for meals just like every­one else. (Though truth be told, many times they’d rather work through and only take breaks when strong­ly encour­aged.)

10. Some­times it’s a wait­ing game. Our por­tion of the pow­er grid is con­nect­ed to Georgia’s Inte­grat­ed Trans­mis­sion Sys­tem (ITS), a unique 17,800-mile net­work cov­er­ing 90% of the state. The ITS is the back­bone of Georgia’s trans­mis­sion grid. If our out­age is due to an issue on the trans­mis­sion grid, we must often wait for it to be repaired before our employ­ees can restore pow­er to your home.

We do our best to avoid pow­er dis­rup­tions, but they are inevitable from time to time. If the lights go out, know that your Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive team is work­ing as quick­ly and safe­ly as pos­si­ble to restore pow­er.

If you expe­ri­ence an out­age, please let us know by report­ing it online or by call­ing (800) 421‑2343. We are avail­able 24 hours a day, sev­en days a week.