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When major power outages occur, WFEC line crews follow a specific restoration process designed to restore power to the greatest number of people as quickly as possible. The first priority is repairing high-voltage transmission lines. Although these lines rarely fail, they are critical components to the electric grid, so they must be repaired first. Our generation and transmission cooperative, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, is responsible for these repairs. Next, crews inspect and make repairs to distribution substations, which receive power from transmission lines and distribute it to hundreds or thousands of co-op members. WFEC and PowerSouth crews both work on these (PowerSouth repairs the transmission lines that feed into the substation and WFEC crews repair the distribution lines, which flow out of the substation). 109506001

Once substations are operating, crews move on to repairing the main distribution lines that deliver electricity to neighborhoods and essential facilities such as hospitals and other critical services. After these larger lines are restored, utility workers focus on the smaller lines that connect individual homes and businesses to the grid. By restoring power in this order, utilities can safely and efficiently return service to the largest number of customers before addressing isolated outages affecting individuals.