Hello East Central Electric Member
The purpose of this page is to provide updates for members on large-scale outage events and other pertinent information. To report an outage, please use SmartHub or call 918-756-0833.
OUTAGE RESTORATION PROCESS
During large-scale outage events, restoration is often a complex process requiring long hours of work for our team and any others who respond to provide mutual aid.
Transmission lines are owned and operated by our power suppliers, KAMO and Western Farmers. These lines carry electricity across hundreds of miles from the generation facilities to substations across the East Central service territory. Whenever these systems are cut off, it can impact tens of thousands of members.
Substations are jointly owned and operated by the cooperative and our power suppliers. The substations take power from the transmission lines and step it down to travel across the co-op owned distribution lines. Whenever these systems are cut-off, it can impact several thousand members.
Distribution lines are owned and operated by the cooperative to distribute power across our service territory to individual members. Depending on the severity and location of the damage, when these systems are cut-off, it can impact anywhere from 2 to 2,000 members.
East Central is responsible for maintenance on everything up to and including the meter on your home or business. It is important that you ensure the cooperative has a record of your outage via SmartHub or direct phone call to make sure your power comes back on as steps 1, 2, and 3 are restored. If it does not, having a report on record will allow our team to see that your power is not yet restored and take steps to address the outage.
Our goal is to ensure the well-being of our members by restoring power as quickly and safely as possible. We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Click here to learn more about Outage Safety and Preparation.
SOUTHWEST POWER POOL
Southwest Power Pool (SPP) acts as a balancing authority for a 14-state region, meaning they balance electricity production and use for their region. SPP ensures there is sufficient generation to meet the demand for electricity. This is why energy conservation in North Dakota, for example, can have a meaningful impact on electric reliability in the Oklahoma panhandle.
SPP communicates to our Generation and Transmission Cooperative (G&T), Western Farmers, who in turn supplies power and emergency response response communications to East Central Electric Cooperative. SPP does not regulate our other G&T, KAMO.
SPP has a three level energy emergency alert plan:
Emergency Alert Level 1
- Declared when all available resources have been committed and SPP is at risk of not meeting required operating reserves.
Emergency Alert Level 2
- Declared when SPP can no longer provide the expected energy requirements. At this point, East Central will communicate with members, encouraging voluntary conservation.
Emergency Alert Level 3
- Declared when SPP is operating below the required minimum and may have to ask member utilities to curtail energy use through controlled service interruptions. At this point, East Central will communicate with members about necessary service interruptions.