Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 07:17:13 -0500
From: Michael Tucker
Subject: Power on and off
I used to be the guy on the other end of the phone late at night when the power went off. I dispatched overhead linemen. I hope this post gives a little insight and helps.
You only pay for power when it is on. If the meter ain’t spinning, you ain’t paying. The power company really wants to get power back on. They have to prioritize when a lot of incidents occur at once. 100 people being out is a higher priority than 10 or 2. A wire down is a higher priority than a fuse blown on a pole. (Some people think a transformer blew but it is usually a fuse. It could be a fuse for a single home or for an entire subdivision.) The power company keeps track where people live who are using oxygen or other critical lifesaving devices. (This does not include your freezer.) I knew of a lineman who almost rolled his huge bucket truck to get to an emergency where a life was at stake.
If only 2 people in a subdivision call and a bunch more don’t call, the power company may not realize how many people are actually affected. When Duke Power called me back last Tuesday, I had given them my home phone number which was not powered on. Oops. If they think the power is back on to the neighborhood, but your fuse is blown on your pole, they may not know it for a while longer.
Duke Power linemen/women are part of the IBEW union. They pushed the NC Utilities Commission to pressure Duke Power to maintain the same number of linemen to provide the same coverage as Progress Energy. The layoffs were expected to be office/administrative/management rather than field technicians.