Steps to Restoring Power
In order to restore power properly due to an outage, Four County Electric proceeds with the following order of priorities:
Transmission Lines
- These are high-voltage lines that move bulk electricity from a generating plant to a substation or between substations
- A problem with one of these lines could interrupt the electric power to several thousand members
Substations
- Substations are electrical facilities that contain equipment for switching or regulating the voltage of electricity
- A problem within a substation could cause all of the members being served from that substation to be without electric service
- If the problem is limited to one particular circuit leaving the substation, only those members on that specific circuit would be without electric service
- A problem of this nature could interrupt electric service to several thousand members
Main Distribution Lines
- These are the 7,200 to 14,400-volt lines that you see along roadways that carry power from the substation
- Each line serves a portion of consumers from the substation
- A problem on a specific line could leave hundreds of consumers without electric service
Tap Lines
- Tap lines are electric feeder lines with limited capacity that run from a main distribution line to a few members
- A fault on a tap line would interrupt service to those members being served by that line only
- If the break on the tap line was repaired, the members on that tap line would still be without power until the main line is repaired
Individual Service
- This the line that runs from the transformer to your meter
- A problem here would only affect the electric service to an individual member, while the remaining system would still have electric service
