Storm Repairs: Why Some Before Others?
We never realize how much we take electricity for granted until we have an outage, and then we want it back: immediately. Unfortunately, the Cooperative cannot always restore power to everyone at once. If storms have caused widespread outages, and we know that some repair jobs have to wait for others, how does the Co-op determine which ones get attention first?
For any utility during an outage, the goal is to restore power to the most people possible as quickly as possible. This may mean power is restored to some homes, while a neighboring home goes without power for some time longer. It can appear random, until we see the big picture.
Working outward from the substation, which is the local source of power, our first priority would be any downed or damaged main distribution lines. This is common sense, since without this work, we cannot supply the power necessary to know if any of the other repairs have been effective.
When the main distribution lines have been repaired, the next priorities are the tap lines, in order by number of people receiving electricity from each tap.
