Common Questions During a Power Outage

A: If you have power, but are experiencing irregularities such as the lights suddenly getting really bright in part of your house and dim in another, or your lights work in one part of your home and not another, you might be experiencing partial power.

If you have power in part of your house, first check your circuit panel to be sure you don't have a tripped breaker.

If your power does not come back on, or if you are experiencing dim or overly bright lights, please turn off the main breaker at your circuit panel. Call us at 1-844-484-2300, press '1' to report a new outage and then press '3' to report your partial power outage. Follow all of the remaining prompts.

A: If there has been damage to your weatherhead, mast or meter box, a crew cannot safely reconnect your power. Doing so would put you and your neighbors at risk of fire or other safety hazards. Please see the diagram below for reference. If you notice damage to any of the equipment on your home, you will need to contact an electrician to make repairs before our crews can restore your power.

A: In a nutshell, the answer is cost.

The cost of new underground power lines in most neighborhoods is about $150 per foot. Overhead is much less, around $70 per foot. That's just the cost for the line itself. Moving existing overhead lines to underground adds additional costs for easements, transformers and undergrounding the individual services for each customer, repairing fences and landscaping, and individual customer costs to convert the meter base to an underground feed. Undergrounding large transmission lines costs about $500 per foot compared with the $150 per foot cost to build overhead transmission lines.

It's also worth noting that outages do occur with underground lines as well, and they often take much longer to diagnose and repair compared with overhead lines.

A: You bet! We spend approximately $3.5 million each year on tree trimming. We employ four full-time, certified arborists to inspect and evaluate vegetation around power lines, determine required maintenance activities, and communicate with customers about tree trimming activities. Eleven contract crews work year round to prune and trim trees and other vegetation. Crews trim around 300 line miles of vegetation annually to minimize falling trees and branches. Our goal is to trim for four years of clearance, but some fast-growing species require more frequent trimming.

A: If you still have power, call our Tree Trimming team at 541-685-7148, or email tree.trimming@eweb.org. If your power is out and you have a downed limb or tree, call our toll-free outage reporting line at 1-844-484-2300. You must complete all prompts to record your outage.