Our mission is to deliver affordable and reliable service to all our members. However, despite our best efforts, you may eventually experience a power outage.
When an outage does occur, we often have hundreds or even thousands of customers calling in to report outages. To better serve you, we maintain an interactive voice response system that can handle thousands of calls simultaneously, giving us accurate information to better pinpoint your outage. That information combined with our System Control and Data Acquisition enables our system operators to dispatch our line crews as quickly and safely as possible to begin power restoration.
Reporting Your Outage
- First, check your breakers just to make sure they have not been tripped.
- Call Okefenoke REMC at 1.800.262.5131
- Press “1” for our outage system. Having your account number handy will speed up the process.
- If your phone number is recognized by our system, the system will automatically record your service location and report the outage. If your phone number is not recognized, you will be given additional voice prompts, or you may be directed to the next available customer service representative.
- You can also login with your Facebook or Gmail account. You’ll need your OREMC account number and meter number.
- PLEASE NOTE: Emailing Customer Service or posting on Facebook does not report your outage.
How Power is Restored
During widespread weather events resulting in significant damage to our system, OREMC follows its Emergency Service Restoration Plan which gives first priority to:
1. restoring power to emergency and public service facilities
2. responding to any unsafe situations
3. the largest number of customers in the shortest period of time
OREMC has 18 substations in its 3,500 square mile service area. When a major outage occurs, these are checked first to be sure the power supply from the transmission system is not the problem. If the problem is a substation, work begins there to restore power to the largest number of people.
Main distribution lines (we have over 3,000 miles of them) carry electricity away from the substations and are checked after the substations. When problems are fixed at this level, all members served by a particular distribution line could see the lights come on, as long as there is not another problem farther down the line or on a tap line.
The final supply line to a member’s home or business is called a tap line. Tap lines carry power to the transformers on utility poles or underground transformers outside your home or business. These lines are among the last to be fixed as they typically impact fewer members and can only be identified as the source of an outage once all other lines are fixed. Sometimes, when your neighbors have power and you don’t, the problem is between your home or business and the service line from the transformer on the nearby utility pole. That is why it is important for all outages to be reported.
Call Before You Dig!
Simply call 8-1-1 before you dig whether you are a professional excavator or a do-it-yourself homeowner.
- The service is free
- Usually completed in less than 48 hours
- Helps keep you and your property safe
- It is the law.
One easy phone call to 811 quickly and easily begins the process of getting underground utility lines marked. Local One Call Center personnel will then notify affected utility companies who will mark underground lines for free. Knowing where underground utility lines are buried before each digging project will help protect you from injury, expense and penalties.
