No doubt, communicating with customers when you experience outages is essential. During major weather events, it’s just as critical to keep ElectriCities informed about impacts in your community.
That’s key to helping the ElectriCities Emergency Assistance Program (EAP) operate smoothly, quickly coordinating mutual aid for the communities that need it. It also helps agencies like North Carolina’s State Emergency Response Team, or SERT, understand the scope of outages statewide and direct resources where they’re needed most.
Incorporating your community’s outages on the ElectriCities Outage Map is a simple process.
The map populates using information from members that can come in two ways:
- You submit outage data via a link you receive from ElectriCities.
- Your outage map is integrated with the ElectriCities map.
When a major event is forecast, if your outage map isn’t integrated with the ElectriCities map, our EAP team will request outages from you at pre-announced times—usually in the morning and afternoon. Those times are based on the schedule determined by SERT.
When it’s time to report outages, you’ll receive a text and email from the EAP team. The notification provides a link to a form you can use to submit your outages.
You simply:
- Click on the link.
- Confirm your utility from the dropdown.
- Enter number of outages.
- Click “Submit.”
“It’s crucial to provide precise outage information, even if that number is zero,” said Greg Flinn, Senior Utility Systems Project Engineer at ElectriCities. “That data helps ensure that our outage figures match what customers are seeing and gives partners like SERT and the ElectriCities EAP a clear picture so they can quickly get help where it’s needed.”
“We’re working to expand integrations so more members can automate their outage reporting,” Greg said.
If your outage map is linked with the ElectriCities outage map, this process occurs automatically, eliminating the need for manual steps. If you have questions about outage reporting or integration with ElectriCities’ map, please reach out to Greg Flinn.