What should you do if the power goes out?
Central Montana Electric Power Cooperative is not involved with the outage restoration process, that is a function of your local distribution cooperative.
Electric service is normally very reliable. However, power outages do occur for different reasons. If you experience a power outage, please take the following action:
- Check your electrical panel. Look for tripped breakers or blown fuses. If there is a breaker below the meter, be sure to check it as well. Try to reset the breakers by switching them OFF then ON. If you have fuses that have blown, replace them with the proper size fuse. It is always a good idea to keep extra fuses on hand in the event that a fuse fails.
- Contact neighbors to find out if they are without electric service. This information will help in determining whether or not the outage is an individual outage or a line outage.
- Turn off all electrical appliances that were on, especially air conditioners or electric heating. However, you will want to leave a light on so you will know when your power has been restored.
- Turn on your portable radio and listen for your local news report.
- This will occur only when there has been a major planned outage or catastrophic conditions.
- Leave doors closed on refrigerators and freezers as much as possible during outages. Food will keep much longer if the doors are left closed.
- If any member of your family is on a life-support system, please notify the Cooperative today so their name and address can be placed on a priority service list.
- If it appears that the problem is with the cooperatives' equipment and facilities, please do not hesitate to contact the cooperative for assistance. Be prepared to provide the name on the account, the account number, the service location and your telephone number.
It should be noted that a member will be charged a service fee for outages which are found to be related to the member's wiring.