How we restore power
During outages, our crews work to restore your power as quickly as possible.
We work year-round to ensure our electric system is safe, reliable and well maintained. Although we regularly repair and upgrade our electric system and trim or remove trees growing near the power lines, we can’t prevent every outage.
Restoring power during a major storm takes much more than just flipping a switch or repairing one downed line. When storm damage extends throughout our service area, getting everyone’s lights back on can take time and it has to be done safely. Our goal is to get the largest number of customers back on in the shortest amount of time. Here’s how we prioritize repairs to get the job done:
- Transmission lines are 115,000 volt lifelines that bring electricity to our system from BPA generation resources. These high voltage lines deliver power to our substations. Transmission outages affect thousands of customers, so we repair them first. Power outages originating on BPA’s transmission system must be repaired by their crews.
- Substations transform power from 115,000 volts to 12,500 volts and deliver it to our distribution lines. A single substation can also serve thousands of customers, so substations are always a high priority for service restoration.
- Distribution lines carry power from our substations to the farthest reaches of our service area. As the lines get further from the substation the wires get progressively smaller and the number of customers served gets smaller too. Consequently, our lineman restore power by starting at the substation and working their way out to the ends of the distribution lines.
- Service lines connect your home or business to our electric system. For your power to be on, the transmission line, the substation, the distribution line and the transformer serving your home or business must be energized. That’s why service lines are the last order of business during a major restoration effort.
