‘We don’t have a blinking light for every customer’: Power company asks all customers to report outages

December 1, 2017 Utah Channel 3

SOUTHERN UTAH — When it comes to getting the lights back on during an outage, power company customers play a bigger role than they may think.

In a press release from Rocky Mountain Power, the public utility said that line crews work hard to minimize power outages, but when they do occur, customers shouldn’t rely on their neighbors to report them. In fact, the more customers who report an outage, the quicker workers can find the source of the problem.

“When customers report that their power is out, it helps us identify where the outage is located and assists in pinpointing the issue causing the outage,” said Curt Mansfield, Rocky Mountain Power vice president of operations.

Customers sometimes opt to not report an outage because they assume their neighbors have already reported it or that the company has a mechanism that helps pinpoint where an outage has occurred in their neighborhood, which is not the case.

“Our technology lets us know what is happening on our generation and transmission systems as far the neighborhood substation. Beyond that, we don’t have a blinking light for every customer,” Mansfield said. “The more customers we have reporting an outage, the better the information we will have as we work to restore power.”

Customers can report at outage at the Rocky Mountain Power website, via the Rocky Mountain Power mobile app or by phone at 1-877-508-5088.

For a list of other Washington County utility phone numbers by city, go here.

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