Be prepared for spring storms

We encour­age mem­bers to use 1–866–374‑1234 when­ev­er they have an out­age, but espe­cial­ly dur­ing wide­spread out­ages. This auto­mat­ed sys­tem can take many more calls than our employ­ees. An out­age noti­fi­ca­tion with all the per­ti­nent mem­ber and elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem data need­ed to restore your pow­er is record­ed with­in sec­onds in our oper­a­tions cen­ter. It is extreme­ly impor­tant for YEC to have your up-to-date tele­phone num­ber — the one asso­ci­at­ed with your co-op account. Hav­ing your cor­rect phone num­ber will allow YEC to dis­patch crews as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

Call any time you have a pow­er out­age. We are here to serve you. Once you report the out­age, try not to call YEC or the auto­mat­ed out­age line again unless you have an emer­gency. Be assured our crews are doing every­thing pos­si­ble to restore your pow­er as soon as pos­si­ble. Unnec­es­sary calls pre­vent those who have not report­ed their out­age from get­ting through to report their out­age. Also, dupli­cate calls can gen­er­ate mul­ti­ple out­age records for the same loca­tion.

If you have med­ical equip­ment nec­es­sary to sus­tain life or avoid severe med­ical com­pli­ca­tions, it is impor­tant to noti­fy YEC and fol­low the prop­er steps to be list­ed as a Spe­cial Needs Pri­or­i­ty Account. Please click here to learn more. YEC urges mem­bers who are depen­dent on elec­tric­i­ty for med­ical rea­sons to have a dis­as­ter plan and make arrange­ments before a cri­sis to relo­cate to a place where those needs can be met. In the event of an out­age, always remem­ber to noti­fy your fam­i­ly and/or friends and call EMS, espe­cial­ly if your sit­u­a­tion is life threat­en­ing.

Lis­ten to emer­gency rec­om­men­da­tions pro­vid­ed by lead agen­cies such as local emer­gency man­age­ment, civ­il defense, Red Cross, or police. Fol­low their rec­om­men­da­tions.

YEC does not de-ener­­gize facil­i­ties because of antic­i­pat­ed dam­age such as flood­ing, ice or high winds. The dis­con­nect devices on elec­tri­cal equip­ment remain ener­gized until a storm caus­es them to oper­ate as designed and shut off cur­rent.

There could be sev­er­al rea­sons: Fus­es or cir­cuit break­ers in your home could have tripped; trees could have fall­en on your ser­vice; the trans­former that serves you could have a blown fuse or oth­er dam­age; the pri­ma­ry line could be de-ener­­gized because of dam­age; many YEC lines have more than one wire and your trans­former may be the only one con­nect­ed to the wire that is “dead”.

Once dam­age to major lines has been repaired, YEC will work on lines serv­ing indi­vid­u­als. At that time, we will deter­mine if an elec­tri­cian should fix the dam­age or if we can. Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, YEC will repair prob­lems up to the weath­er­head on over­head ser­vice and up to the meter on under­ground ser­vice. Past these points, an elec­tri­cian is need­ed.

Once your ser­vice is restored every effort will be made to keep it on. Keep in mind, how­ev­er, that as we repair oth­er parts of the sys­tem, some inter­rup­tions may be required. In addi­tion, YEC works close­ly with coun­ty, city and state agen­cies. At their request, we may have to inter­rupt a cir­cuit if there is a fire or some oth­er emer­gency. And dur­ing ice storms, it is not uncom­mon for the weight of ice on the line or sur­round­ing trees to cause pow­er lines to break. If the storm con­tin­ues, a crew may restore your pow­er, and then, with the fur­ther accu­mu­la­tion of ice on the lines, your lines may break again.

No. YEC main­tains and oper­ates facil­i­ties in a man­ner cal­cu­lat­ed to pro­vide safe and reli­able ser­vice. Dur­ing abnor­mal weath­er, we make every effort to pro­vide con­tin­u­ous ser­vice, but can­not be respon­si­ble for com­plete or par­tial fail­ure or inter­rup­tion of ser­vice, or for fluc­tu­a­tions in volt­age from caus­es beyond our con­trol. Just pri­or to a storm, and dur­ing ear­ly stages of restora­tion, mem­bers may wish to turn off or lim­it use of elec­tron­i­cal­ly sen­si­tive and/or nonessen­tial appli­ances.

Over­head ser­vices are more exposed to ice, high winds and fly­ing debris. Under­ground facil­i­ties are sub­ject to flood­ing. Dam­age to an over­head trans­former is often eas­i­er to find. Dam­age to a pad mount­ed trans­former serv­ing under­ground cable may not be read­i­ly vis­i­ble. Under­ground lines are sus­cep­ti­ble to dam­age from dig­ging and trench­ing equip­ment. And the cost of installing and main­tain­ing under­ground con­duc­tor over hun­dreds of miles of sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed rur­al areas would result in an enor­mous increase in the cost of elec­tric­i­ty to you.

Restor­ing pow­er after wide­spread out­ages is a big job that involves more than sim­ply throw­ing a switch or remov­ing a tree from a line. The main goal is to safe­ly restore pow­er to the great­est num­ber of mem­bers in the short­est time pos­si­ble. In order to accom­plish this, the process begins with a dam­age assess­ment of the co-op’s lines and facil­i­ties by employ­ees who have been specif­i­cal­ly trained to accom­plish those tasks. The assess­ment allows YEC to direct its resources (both labor and mate­ri­als) to areas where they are need­ed the most.

If there is dam­age to pow­er plants, switch­yards, or trans­mis­sion lines, those facil­i­ties must be repaired by our pow­er sup­pli­er before we can restore your ser­vice. Trans­mis­sion lines sel­dom fail, but they can be dam­aged by storms. Tens of thou­sands of peo­ple could be served by a sin­gle high-volt­age trans­mis­sion line. When those facil­i­ties are work­ing, prob­lems in your co-op’s elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem can be cor­rect­ed.

Sub­sta­tions are repaired first. When a major out­age occurs, the local dis­tri­b­u­tion sub­sta­tions are checked first. If the prob­lem can be cor­rect­ed at the sub­sta­tion lev­el, pow­er may be restored to a large num­ber of peo­ple. YEC has 24 sub­sta­tions on its sys­tem and there are over 3,500 miles of dis­tri­b­u­tion lines which are rout­ed from the sub­sta­tions.

Dis­tri­b­u­tion lines are repaired. Main dis­tri­b­u­tion sup­ply lines are checked next, if the prob­lem can­not be iso­lat­ed at the sub­sta­tion. These sup­ply lines car­ry elec­tric­i­ty away from the sub­sta­tion to a group of mem­bers, such as a sub­di­vi­sion. When pow­er is restored at this stage, all mem­bers served by this sup­ply line could see the lights come on, as long as there is no prob­lem far­ther down the line.

Indi­vid­ual ser­vices restored. The final sup­ply lines, called ser­vice lines, car­ry pow­er from the trans­former on util­i­ty poles or under­ground trans­form­ers out­side hous­es or oth­er build­ings. Line crews fix the remain­ing out­ages based on restor­ing ser­vice to the great­est num­ber of mem­bers. Some­times, dam­age will occur on the ser­vice line between your house and the trans­former on the near­by pole. This may explain why you have no pow­er when your neigh­bor does.

It prob­a­bly is because before ser­vice may be restored to you and your neigh­bors, work must be com­plet­ed at anoth­er loca­tion.

Restor­ing pow­er to homes and busi­ness­es is a top pri­or­i­ty for York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, but the safe­ty of our mem­bers and employ­ees always comes first – and it’s more impor­tant than ever to be cau­tious dur­ing extreme weath­er con­di­tions. For work­ers in buck­et trucks or attempt­ing to climb poles and tow­ers, high winds are very dan­ger­ous. Once a storm pass­es and winds drop to less than 30 miles per hour, we will safe­ly begin dili­gent­ly work­ing on out­ages and bring­ing you pow­er as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

YEC’s ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry includes some 3,500 miles of elec­tri­cal dis­tri­b­u­tion line in a four-coun­­ty region. Restora­tion time, there­fore, depends to a large degree on how many dif­fer­ent lines are sig­nif­i­cant­ly dam­aged. Severe dam­age to trans­mis­sion sys­tems would have the most dis­abling effect on restora­tion efforts.

Restor­ing pow­er to homes and busi­ness­es is a top pri­or­i­ty for York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, but the safe­ty of our mem­bers and employ­ees always comes first – and it’s more impor­tant than ever to be cau­tious dur­ing extreme weath­er con­di­tions. For work­ers in buck­et trucks or attempt­ing to climb poles and tow­ers, high winds are very dan­ger­ous. Once a storm pass­es and winds drop to less than 30 miles per hour, we will safe­ly begin dili­gent­ly work­ing on out­ages and bring­ing you pow­er as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

If dam­age from a storm exceeds our capa­bil­i­ty to restore ser­vice in a rea­son­able time, we will request crews from oth­er coop­er­a­tives. Elec­tric coop­er­a­tives work togeth­er to assist one anoth­er in times of need. In areas not affect­ed by the storm, only a min­i­mum crew will be left to han­dle calls. Mem­bers should expect rou­tine ser­vice request calls such as secu­ri­ty light repairs or meter con­nects to be delayed due to the storm.

Restor­ing pow­er to homes and busi­ness­es is a top pri­or­i­ty for York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, but the safe­ty of our mem­bers and employ­ees always comes first – and it’s more impor­tant than ever to be cau­tious dur­ing extreme weath­er con­di­tions. For work­ers in buck­et trucks or attempt­ing to climb poles and tow­ers, high winds are very dan­ger­ous. Once a storm pass­es and winds drop to less than 30 miles per hour, we will safe­ly begin dili­gent­ly work­ing on out­ages and bring­ing you pow­er as quick­ly as pos­si­ble.

If you expe­ri­ence a pow­er out­age and have already checked your main break­er, you should always alert YEC of your loca­tion. Please report your pow­er out­age by call­ing Pow­er­Touch: 1–866–374‑1234, tex­ting OUTAGE to 352667, using our mobile app, or log­ging in to our Mem­ber Ser­vices por­tal.

You can’t! Con­sid­er all cables and wires ener­gized, whether elec­tri­cal, cable tele­vi­sion or tele­phone. After a storm any wire can be ener­gized if it falls or gets wrapped around an ener­gized line, whether a few feet or a block away. If a line is in water, there is even more rea­son to be cau­tious. Con­sid­er it and the water ener­gized. Learn more with our elec­tri­cal safe­ty videos.

Start by learn­ing about gen­er­a­tor safe­ty with our handy instruc­tions.

Con­nect­ing a portable or recre­ation­al vehi­cle (RV) gen­er­a­tor to home wiring can cause safe­ty prob­lems. Ide­al­ly, appli­ances should be direct­ly plugged into a gen­er­a­tor. If you must hook the gen­er­a­tor to the main elec­tric pan­el, it is very impor­tant to dis­con­nect your home from YEC’s elec­tri­cal sys­tem first. If not dis­con­nect­ed, pow­er can flow from your gen­er­a­tor into out­side util­i­ty lines and kill or injure crews work­ing on the lines — even some dis­tance away. You could even injure a neigh­bor if pow­er from your gen­er­a­tor flows along com­mon lines to anoth­er house.

When elec­tric ser­vice is restored to your area, dis­con­nect your gen­er­a­tor before turn­ing on pow­er to your home. If you don’t, the gen­er­a­tor can be dam­aged. When using a gen­er­a­tor, make sure it has prop­er ven­ti­la­tion. It should only be oper­at­ed out­side. Remem­ber the gen­er­a­tor’s rat­ed wattage is a func­tion of the num­ber of appli­ances it will pow­er. The wattage of lights or oth­er appli­ances run off the gen­er­a­tor as a total should not exceed the rat­ed wattage of the gen­er­a­tor. The man­u­fac­tur­er’s rec­om­men­da­tions must be fol­lowed for prop­er usage and load. If you have any doubts, con­sult a qual­i­fied elec­tri­cian.

One of our top pri­or­i­ties will be to remove trees and debris that have dam­aged elec­tri­cal equip­ment and are pre­vent­ing ser­vice restora­tion. Mem­bers should not attempt to remove or trim foliage with­in 10 feet of a pow­er line. If a tree or tree limbs have fall­en on a pow­er line or pulled it down, do not attempt to get close to the line. If the line is spark­ing, call YEC at 1–866–374‑1234 and report a downed line.

Learn more with our elec­tri­cal safe­ty videos.

No. Since YEC has no con­trol over dam­age done to facil­i­ties dur­ing storms or oth­er nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, mem­bers at large could not be expect­ed to pay for any indi­vid­ual mem­ber’s food that might spoil due to storm dam­age and result­ing from elec­tric ser­vice inter­rup­tions. Remem­ber, elec­tri­cal dis­tur­bances that cause you dam­age are like­ly to cause your coop­er­a­tive dam­age too, but on a much larg­er scale. One light­ing strike, for exam­ple, can cause equip­ment fail­ure to your coop­er­a­tive cost­ing hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars. There­fore, we do all we can to rea­son­ably pro­tect the elec­tric sys­tem. You must do your part by pro­tect­ing your own equip­ment from any storm dam­age or loss of pow­er.

Learn the ABCDs of food han­dling and stor­age in an emer­gency with our handy Keep­ing Food Safe guide.

YEC works hard to update the local news media on the over­all progress of restora­tion efforts affect­ing the area. YEC issues infor­ma­tion releas­es to the news media regard­ing restora­tion progress dur­ing major pow­er out­ages. We also post live out­age updates and restora­tion progress on our Face­book Account. Check­ing YEC’s web­site and social media Pages via bat­tery-oper­at­ed web devices are the best ways for you to be informed of storm restora­tion progress. Be sure to have an emer­gency kit, equipped with a bat­tery-oper­at­ed radio and fresh bat­ter­ies, so you’re ready in case of a major pow­er out­age.

You could have a tripped cir­cuit break­er or blown fuse in your home­’s elec­tric pan­el, result­ing in par­tial ser­vice. If so, reset the break­er. You may also have a bro­ken con­nec­tor or wire at one of the ser­vice leads to your house. If so, call 1–866–374‑1234. Please take a moment to watch our video, How to Check Cir­cuit Break­ers.

Before call­ing to report an out­age:

• Check all cir­cuit break­ers or fus­es to help deter­mine if your ser­vice out­age might be the result of a house­hold prob­lem. Learn more in our video, How to Check Cir­cuit Break­ers.
• Call a licensed elec­tri­cian if you have sig­nif­i­cant water dam­age in your home that might make it unsafe or if the meter out­side your home or any of the pip­ing and wires on the wall of your home looked dam­aged.