| Power
Outage FAQ
|
| Q:
Why does my neighbor have power and I don't?
|
|
| A:
There may be damage to the service wires leading only to your
home. These don't affect your neighbor's electric supply.
Your neighbor's home may be served by a different circuit
or feed than your home, even though you're right next door.
The homes and businesses on our system are not connected in
series like the dot-to-dot game you played as a child; they
are connected more like a spider web.
There may also be as many as three different "hot lines" (phases)
on the pole in front of your home. Your neighbor may get service
from a different "hot line" than you. A problem down the street
that's affecting the same phase as your home could be keeping
the power off for all homes attached to that particular "hot
line."
|
| Q:
A truck just drove right by my house and didn't stop.
How come? |
|
| A:
The crew you saw was probably working on
getting the backbone of the electric system repaired. Our first
priority in a catastrophic outage is to get the main circuits
(or trunk lines) back in operation.
Not every
wire out on the street is considered a main circuit. There
are thousands of lines that feed off of main circuits (these
feeder wires are also called "taps"). So after the main trunks
are "back hot," we start repairing taps.
After trunk lines are functioning, we make repairs that affect
the most people at one time. This means repairs that affect
only one or two locations will probably be last.
|
| Q:
I have underground wires to my house. Why did my power
go off? |
|
| A:
Even though the wires in your subdivision
or from the street to your home are buried, overhead wires bring
electricity to those underground wires from the substation.
The distance from the substation to your subdivision could be
miles.
As new
homes are built, it is reasonably economical to bury the wires
that serve them. But it would cost millions and millions of
dollars to tear down our existing overhead lines and then
re-install them underground.
Even though your power was out, your underground wiring still
helped you avoid problems.
|
| Q:
I tried and tried to call and all I got was a busy signal.
Do you take the phone off the hook during large outages?
|
|
| A:
Absolutely not. On a normal day, Walton EMC receives
about 1,000 calls. We are staffed to handle this volume on an
efficient basis. A large outage can increase the amount of phone
traffic exponentially.
For example, on Monday, January 24, during Ice Jam 2000, we
took over 28,000 calls, almost 30 times the normal volume.
It doesn't make financial sense to keep the staffing on hand
necessary to answer this number of calls for a once in a twenty-year
occurrence.
We do have plans in place to handle large call volumes that
occur on a rare basis. We bring a special computer on line
that can answer hundreds of calls at once and pool phones
into the call center group that allows other employees to
answer outage calls. Our Internet
reporting system is a good way to let us know about your
outage.
|
| Q:
I'm on the priority list because of a medical condition.
Why isn't my power restored instantly? |
|
| A:
Walton EMC can't guarantee your electric service. Things beyond
our control, like ice storms and car-power pole accidents, will
always tear down power lines and disrupt the flow of electricity.
That's why members who depend on electrical equipment for
a medical necessity should always have alternate plans in
place in case the power goes out for an extended amount of
time. This may include a backup power source, extra medical
supplies or an alternate location until the outage is over.
Make sure supplies of prescription drugs are adequate and
have a first-aid kit.
And even
though we give these accounts priority, we still must repair
the damage to the backbone of our electric system before we
can turn attention to individual priority accounts.
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