Powering up after an outage

Immediately after a severe storm hits the Eastern Iowa REC service area, crews begin to assess the extent of the damage and the emergency power restoration plan is put into action.

The plan is designed to safely restore power to the greatest number of members in the shortest amount of time.  The severity of the outage and weather conditions always play a role in the time it takes to restore power.

When a storm strikes, crews immediately begin the restoration process.  Repairs are made at the substations first, followed by major feeder lines, branch lines off the feeder lines and then individual service lines.

The last portion of the plan, dealing with individual outage situations, can take the greatest amount of time.

During that stage, crews move house-to-house making repairs. With the Cooperative's rural service area, there can be great distances involved between houses.

All during the power restoration effort, the Cooperative's telephones are answered 24 hours a day.  During peak periods, an automated call handling system will be used for incoming outage calls.  

Always call, 1-855-938-3616 or use SmartHub, to report an outage to help line crews isolate local issues.