Hamilton County among lightest impacted by sweeping outages
Following Thursday afternoon’s strong thunderstorms that swept across the state and Hamilton County, nearly 140,000 Duke Energy Indiana customers were without power as of 8 p.m.
The Reporter reached out to Duke Energy with questions about how long customers could expect to wait to have power restored and what customers can do to stay safe.
Q: With over 2,500 Indiana outages and just under 140,000 customers without power as of 8 p.m. Thursday, how long might it take to get everyone back in service? Could parts of this outage go on for days?
A: Duke Energy crews are actively working to assess damage, make repairs and restore power as quickly as possible. Restoration times will vary across our service territory. Specific time estimates will be provided for those signed up to receive Outage Alerts. This information is also available on our Outage Map where customers can get an estimated time of restoration for their specific location.
Duke Energy focuses on restoring power in a sequence that enables power restoration to public health and safety facilities and to the greatest number of customers as safely and quickly as possible. A typical sequence of activities, many of which occur simultaneously, is as follows:
- Public safety situations – locate downed power lines and make sure electricity is no longer flowing through the wires
- Transmission, substation equipment and main distribution lines – these serve large numbers of customers and large geographic areas and must be restored first to keep electricity flowing from power plants to neighborhoods
- Essential facilities – emergency service and critical infrastructure such as hospitals, law enforcement, fire departments and water treatment facilities
- Distribution lines – we work to get the largest number of customers back on as quickly as possible
Q: What made this set of storms different enough to cause outages on this scale?
A: The impact of high winds has resulted in scattered outages throughout our service territory caused by damage to smaller feeders as opposed to a large concentration of outages, which can be addressed with repairs to major transmission or distribution lines as well as substations.
Q: Do you have sufficient manpower for safe efficient repairs after an incident on this scale?
A: Duke Energy continuously monitors the weather and we’ve been tracking the path of the storm throughout the week. We have been making plans to ensure line workers, damage assessors, and vegetation crews are ready to respond. Our team is well-prepared and have ensured that equipment, supplies, and inventories are ready. They are continuing to respond to outages as quickly and safely as they can.
Q: Other than patience, what advice do you have for customers right now?
A: Stay away from power lines that have fallen or are sagging. Consider all lines energized, as well as trees, limbs, or anything in contact with lines. Report all power line hazards to Duke Energy at (800) 343-3525 or contact your local emergency services agency.
Customers who experience an outage can report it the following ways:
- Visit duke-energy.com on a desktop computer or mobile device.
- Use the Duke Energy mobile app.
- Text OUT to 57801.
- Call the automated outage reporting system at (800) 343-3525.
There is an interactive Outage Map where customers can find up-to-date information on power outages, including the total number of outages systemwide and estimated times of restoration.