How We Restore Power

Major storms can cause power outages lasting from several hours to several days. Unfortunately, power cannot be restored to everyone at the same time. Midwest Energy Cooperative works as safely as possible to quickly restore power, responding first to dangerous situations, such as fallen wires or sparking equipment.

We prioritize by making repairs that will restore power to the most consumers at one time. Midwest Energy Cooperative does not own or maintain the transmission lines that feed power to our substations. As such, we must depend on outside sources to repair any problems with the transmission lines before we can begin making repairs to the distribution system. Once the substation is back in operation, we can determine what work needs to be done within our distribution system to restore service to our members.

We first focus on the main circuits, those lines that leave the substation and carry electric power throughout our service territory. Once the main circuits are repaired, we move on to taps. These are the lines that feed off of main circuits and carry electricity out to smaller groups of consumers. Finally, we focus on service wires, those lines that supply power to one or two locations.

We encourage members to call immediately to report a safety hazard, but ask that you call only once to report an outage. Repeated calls during major storms can overburden our phone lines.

Midwest Energy Cooperative is dedicated to restoring service to all members as safely and efficiently as possible.