Thank you for your patience.
Have questions about power outages? Find answers to common questions below.
Learn when to contact us and how to stay updated during an outage.
Immediately after a major storm, report only safety hazards such as downed power lines or equipment that is sparking. Often, we’re already aware of damage to our systems such as transmission lines and distribution circuits. Your calls help us focus resources on hazards that are not automatically picked up by our monitoring systems.
You can also report an outage using our online form.
Want to be the first to know about outages? Subscribe to alerts.
During major outages, we receive a lot of phone calls and often all of our representatives are busy. If you leave a message, it will automatically be sent to our operations personnel as if you had spoken with an employee. All inquiries are monitored around the clock, and outage calls dealing with safety concerns, such as downed power lines, are prioritized so that they receive service as quickly as possible.
Understand the difference between an outage related to our system and one within your home.
There are many reasons why your power may have gone out, including a vehicle accident, a tree or animal on the power line, or weather-related issues such as lightning, ice or strong winds. Our crews will report the cause of the outage when it’s available, but in some cases, the cause of your outage may not be immediately clear.
You may be compensated for your losses through your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. We recommend checking with your insurance agent. In general, we are not responsible for damages caused by natural occurrences.
It is safe to use the outlets you have available, while you get in touch with an electrician. However, if some of your lights are extremely bright or extremely dim, do not use those outlets to avoid potential damage to equipment. If there is a problem with a service lead to your home, our crews will repair the wires when they arrive to restore service.
These brief outages are triggered by a recloser when it detects interference by an object such as a tree limb. If the interference is temporary, the line will re-energize once you re-set appliances. If the interference is prolonged, the line remains de-energized until the interference is resolved by our crew. Reclosers work to keep everyone safe by preventing larger outages.
Our crew was fixing an issue nearby, which may be unrelated to your outage. Once resolved, our crew will direct its attention to the problem affecting your location.
This can happen when fuses or circuit breakers in your home trip. Or, when tree limbs fall on the line serving your home. Or, when fuses on the transformer that serves your home get tripped or get damaged.
If you live in apartments, mobile homes, condos or other multi-family dwellings, you often have an external breaker in addition to the breaker panel within their unit. The external breaker is owned by the property’s owner/landlord and located outside next to the electric meter for that unit. If you live in a multi-family property and your neighbor has power but you don’t, please check both your inside breakers and your external breaker. You may be able to restore your power simply by resetting your external breaker. Remember, we’re not authorized to operate or repair an external breaker as we don’t own the equipment.
Management companies with 24-hour maintenance may lock the external breakers or choose to house them in a locked room. If this is the case, contact your building maintenance department for access.
To answer any other questions, please contact our Customer Operations Center at 800-956-4237
Learn more about how we restore power.
Our teams continually monitor national and local weather reports and prepare for any oncoming storms. When a major storm hits, our customer service centers add extra telephone lines and representatives to serve you. We also employ advanced telephone technologies to handle the anticipated increase in calls. This technology lets you report an outage to our teams without speaking to an operator and generates status updates regarding the restoration effort.
Customer service representatives don’t have this information. It’s hard to accurately predict restorations of specific circuits serving particular residences because of the many challenges that restoration workers face. We try to provide updates approximately every four hours to the local news media so that they can report the status of the overall restoration effort. You can also find this information included on the homepage during major storms.
We provide updates about power restoration progress on our website. We’ll also update the local news media at least three times a day on the overall progress of restoration efforts for major outages affecting your area.
If you want more information, subscribe to alerts or view our Outage Map to learn more about where outages are occurring.
First, we mobilize our own employees and contractors. Then we call in workers from our sister companies in nearby territories. We also enlist the help of other electric companies through mutual assistance agreements as well as contract workers.
We’re proud that our workers have frequently been honored with the Edison Electric Institute's Emergency Assistance Award for their role in power restoration efforts following tornados, hurricanes, ice storms, and other natural disasters.
Once it’s safe to work outside, our crews will begin assessing the damage and develop estimated restoration times. We’ll share those with you as soon as they are available.
Our initial priorities are to restore power to the largest groups of affected customers, and to hospitals, emergency responders, and public utilities – such as water and sewage treatment facilities. Residential customers are always given priority over business and industrial customers.
When an outage is reported, our system first reports the average amount of time it takes for our crews to restore service. That time may change once a crew has assessed the damage and determines what repairs are needed. If the restoration time is revised you will receive an update with the new time as well as confirmation once power has been restored.
Our crews always work as quickly and safely as possible to get your power restored. We provide the most accurate estimate so that you can make appropriate decisions about next steps that are in the best interest of your home and family. Keep in mind, our estimated restoration times is based on when power is restored to nearly all customers in an area. As crews work to repair damage in the area, it is possible your power could be restored well before the quoted time. If that’s the case, you’ll be notified of any change to your estimated restoration time.
We’ll send a notification when the power has been restored to your home or business. Want to be the first to know about your restoration? Sign up for notifications.
In the case of emergency, call 911 immediately. We recommend taking precautionary measures to keep family members on life support safe in the event of a power outage. Contact relatives or friends for assistance or temporary arrangements in the event of a prolonged outage and be sure to keep emergency phone numbers (physicians, hospitals, safety services, utilities) posted near your telephone.
Our contractors conduct tree trimming throughout the year to keep power lines free of limbs and debris. Following a storm, these contractors remove fallen trees and limbs that are preventing service restoration. However, they only move storm debris that are hindering the restoration of power.
As a reminder: Don’t attempt to remove tree limbs or debris yourself if it is within 10 feet of a power line. Also, if you notice downed lines or sparking equipment, stay far away and call us at 800-956-4237.
For any tree removal that does not involve our lines or equipment, call a local landscape or tree contractor.
Want to be the first to know about outages? Sign up for notifications.
Alerts are text or email messages about activity on your account.
You’ll need to enroll for alerts to receive them.
We don’t charge for alerts, but you may see standard text message and data fees applied by your mobile provider.
There’s no limit to the number of people who receive alerts regarding an account. In order to have multiple cell phone numbers or email addresses, each person requesting the alert should create their own user identification and password.
You’ll receive a follow-up notification that confirms your home or business is affected.
View the Terms & Conditions for Alerts and Subscriptions.
All inquiries through this automated system are monitored 24/7/365.
Log in to view the outage status at your home or business.
Customize your preferences for outage, billing, and payment alerts by text and email.
By subscribing to American Electric Power Company’s Mobile Alerts Service, you acknowledge and agree to the following:
The user agrees to the terms and conditions herein, including the fact that the terms and conditions can be updated from time to time. The Company will provide the user with any new terms and conditions as they become effective. The Customer agrees that if any new term or condition is not acceptable that the user will take the affirmative action to withdraw from the service. Failure to withdraw after an updated term and condition will be considered as acceptance of the new terms and conditions, as authorized by this initial enrollment in the program.
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Your security code is a short word or phrase you set up with our customer service associates to provide extra protection for your online account.
If you have forgotten your security code, please call 800-956-4237.
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