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- Info
Frequently asked questions
- What causes power outages?
- The top 4 causes of power outage hours in Clark County are:
Trees and limbs (non-preventable)
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50% |
| Loss of wholesale power supply |
13% |
| Vehicle accidents |
12% |
| Birds and animals |
8% |
- Why do I have trouble getting a call through to your office
during an outage?
- If you're calling our regular (360) 992-3000 number, we don't have
enough phone lines to handle the hundreds or thousands of calls we
could be getting during an outage. That's why in late 1996 we
installed the PowerLine, a special phone line you can now use to report
outages and get updated outage information. You can reach the PowerLine
at (360) 992-8000. And because PowerLine can take up
to 1,200 calls a minute, you're unlikely to ever get a busy
signal!
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- Why can't you tell me specifically when my power will be
restored?
- Unless the cause of an outage is obvious (such as a car running
into a power pole), it takes us some time to determine the extent of
the damage. And the problems are magnified during winter storms that
result in numerous outages. Our priority is simply to get your power
back on, not to guess about how quickly it may happen.
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- My neighbors have power - why don't I?
- Sometimes there's a blown fuse in a transformer or damage done to
the line serving your home. But we also may have to isolate a small
section of line to work on a problem, even while power has been
restored to other parts of the same line.
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- Do certain customers get priority in having their power
restored after an outage?
- No. We start with the biggest problems and work our way down. No
one gets special treatment. However, we do make special efforts to
respond quickly to the needs of emergency service providers, such as
police, fire stations and hospitals.
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- Why does it take so many hours, sometimes days, to get
power back?
- During major outages that affect many areas of the county, we have
to attack all the problems methodically and make sure we're doing it in
a safe manner. The time it takes to repair problems is directly related
to the extent of the damage.
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- Why can't you prevent outages from occurring in the first
place?
- We do our best during non-emergency time to maintain and upgrade
our entire electric system. But unfortunately, no system is built to
withstand falling trees, branches across lines and other side effects
of severe weather. A well-designed and maintained system will prevent
some damage, but it can't completely prevent outages.
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- Why don't you just bury all power lines, or at least put
them underground in the areas most prone to outages?
- Underground power lines are up to 10 times as expensive to install.
Because of the larger stretches of line in rural areas, where outage
repairs are more difficult, it would cost customers too much to put in
underground service. Underground lines also have unique maintenance
problems, so installing them doesn't make the customers they serve
immune to outages.
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