When an outage occurs, personnel must first determine how widespread the affected area is. If only a small area is affected, crews are dispatched to search for and correct the cause. If an outage is widespread, staff begins checking the substations, then major distribution lines, then neighborhoods and last, individual lines to customers.

Customers should not be discouraged if they see electric trucks passing their homes during an outage. More than likely, the crews are searching for the cause of the outage. When found, power will be restored to the neighborhood as quickly as possible. Until this is done, it is almost impossible to identify problems for individual customers. Customers are encouraged to call the after-hours number with information on an outage; this helps the crews to locate the problem faster.