Restoration Process
Here at New-Mac Electric, we strive to keep our members educated and up-to-date when it comes to power outages. We also want our membership to understand how these outages are handled when they do take place.
First, every electric cooperative follows a standard process when it comes to restoring power and that is: priority goes to the line that restores power to the most members the fastest.
When it comes to restoration, all repairs start with the main line. Once the main line is fixed, a large number of the members experiencing out-ages will be restored. All other repairs are pointless until this line is restored because it feeds the other lines.
With the main line fixed, the remaining damage can be isolated. With the line damage isolated, crews can then start to prioritize repairs and this will allow for members to get power faster.
The next focus for the crews will be tap lines. Some tap lines will help restore multiple homes or farms. Just like illustrated in the photo to the right, your neighbor’s house could have power while your service line could be damaged. These individual repairs come after all of the distribution lines and tap lines are restored.
You may see crews out working and driving by your house multiple times and never getting any power. They have a process to getting as many members back up and running as fast as they can.
We hope when that day comes, you remember our process and that we don’t want any of our members to be without power. If you experience an outage please call us at 417-451-1515.
Step 1
The substation is energized but a main distribution line is damaged near the substation, leaving most members without power. All repairs start with the main line. A large number of members (shown with orange arrows) will have power returned once the main line is fixed. All other repairs would be pointless until this line is restored as it feeds all the other lines.
Step 2
With the main line restored (now shown in red), the line crew can isolate other damage and prioritize repairs. Though a couple of repairs were closer, fixing the line that serves this subdivision down the road will get a larger number of consumers on more quickly.
Step 3
Moving back down the road to fix this tap line will restore electricity to the three homes marked with arrows.
Step 4
A smaller tap line serving a number of homes and the farm on the hill is next on the list for the line crew. The move probably doesn’t make the folks in the blue house too happy. They’ve seen the crew driving by their home and working right across the road. They see lights in homes of all their neighbors but they don’t have power. That’s because even though electricity is coming to their pole (that happened with the first repair in Step 1), the service line from their pole to their meter is damaged. Individual repairs come after all distribution and tap lines are restored.
Step 5
Only after the tap lines are repaired does the crew start work on individual service lines. The crew has been past the blue home three times and could have stopped to restore power anytime after the first main line was repaired and electricity was flowing to the pole nearby. But it’s not fair to other members for a crew to spend hours fixing one outage, when the crew can move down the road and restore power to dozens of homes in the same amount of time.
