Our Approach to Restoration
We have established priorities that we apply during storm restoration. We may work on jobs from more than one category at the same time.
- Urgent or life-threatening public safety hazards come first, such as removing live wires from main roads so emergency vehicles can pass
- Transmission lines and substations are the next priority. These are like the interstate highways of the electric delivery system, feeding power to the local distribution system that serves your home or business
- Critical facilities are generally next, such as police and fire stations, hospitals, schools, and sewage and water plants. If these facilities are running on stable generator power, we may move them lower on the list
- From there, we prioritize jobs that restore the most customers as quickly as possible. A repair that brings back 500 customers will be assigned before a repair that restores 50. Repairs that bring back only one or two customers are most frequently taken on near the end of restoration.
As we work on these jobs, we also have crews responding to less urgent community needs and priorities identified by local officials, such as clearing road obstructions that do not imperil public safety.