Understanding Outages

Our commitment today and in the future is to our members. You can count on Mohave Electric Cooperative (MEC) to be there when you need us. We’re working to prevent outages when possible, restore power as quickly and safely as possible when an outage happens, and continue to look for ways to improve reliability in the future.

At Mohave Electric, we know you count on us to make sure the power is there when you flip the switch, and we work hard every day to make that happen. In fact, MEC maintains a reliability rating substantially better than the industry guideline. Outages do happen. When they do, our crews respond to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.

Outage and Restoring Power – The Basics

Members sometimes ask why some outages are only two minutes while others last several hours.

The short answer is the length of an outage depends on circumstances such as location, time of day, cause, system design, weather, and what equipment is needed for repairs. Each factor plays a part in how quickly we can respond to and restore power.

A brief, momentary interruption, or a short two minute outage, indicates the system’s automated, self-healing network has engaged to prevent a longer outage. If you experience an outage longer than two minutes, it is important to let us know. Even if other members may have reported an outage, we may not know power is off to your home or business.

The most common causes of outages are weather, birds, and trees. Outages are also caused by the public, such as vehicles driving into components of the electric system, balloons coming in contact with power lines, and digging into underground lines.

Reporting an Outage

Calling 1-844-MEC-COOP (844) 632-2667) is an easy and fast way to report an outage and is most effective when you call the outage-reporting number from a phone number listed on your Mohave Electric account.

You can also report an outage by logging into your SmartHub® account or use the mobile app. Want more outage information? You can set up notification features in SmartHub to receive an email or text message for outage notification, updates, and power restored.

Another way to report an outage is through our text option. Simply text “Outage” to 55050 from a mobile number listed on your account and your outage will be logged into our system.

These are fast and easy ways for our members to alert MEC of outages!

Restoring Power – The Process and Timing

When an outage is reported, our Outage Management System directs the information to MEC field crews.

The same highly trained people you see working on the lines during the day also provide “on-call” support for an outage 24 hours a day, seven days a week. MEC has operations facilities in Bullhead City, which also serves Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley, Golden Shores, and Topock; and a facility in Kingman serving Valle Vista, Hackberry, Truxton, Peach Springs, and Wikieup.

Scheduled work hours for the operations crews vary throughout the year. During summer months the hours are 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to help avoid the hottest part of the day. If an outage is reported during scheduled work hours, MEC’s Call Center coordinates with the Operations Supervisor in Bullhead City or Kingman and relays any additional outage information reported. Information received about the outage may be specific, such as reporting a pole down with the exact location, or a member describes hearing a loud noise. The supervisor uses all the information from the reports describing the extent and location of the outage to start a process for restoration.

The supervisor reviews where crews are working at the time and decides which crew will respond. Before the crew can leave their field work area, they must stop the work in progress and be certain it is in safe, secure, and reliable condition. This usually takes 30-60 minutes to complete.

Now the crew assigned to the outage can respond to the heart of the outage area and begin looking for signs of obvious issues. The distance from the crew’s work area to the outage area will affect how long it takes to arrive at the scene.

In outlying areas such as Wikieup, it will typically take 90 minutes for the crew to reach the vicinity from MEC’s Kingman Operations Facility.

While the crew is responding, the supervisor may go to the substation, and use other communication equipment to review data that can help determine a probable cause. If an outage is reported during non-scheduled work hours, MEC’s Call Center, or our contracted call center representative, coordinates with MEC’s “on-call” crew.

The responding crew has 30 minutes to report to their work location in Bullhead City or Kingman. After arriving at the operations facility, crews load the Mohave Electric trucks with tools and equipment. They are ready to depart about 30 minutes later for investigation of the outage and to restore power.

The length of time required to reach the outage location is determined by its distance from the operations facility. To reach outlying areas such as Wikieup or Peach Springs adds about 90 minutes of driving time.

Once on scene, the reality is some outages are found more quickly and require less time to fix than others, which affects the duration of the outage. MEC trucks are stocked with many of the replacement items needed for outage restoration.

Reliability Improvements – Past/Present/Future

Mohave Electric’s Board of Directors and management are committed to an ongoing program of reliability improvements. Our focus is on projects that help minimize the number of members affected by outage events, reduce the number of outages, and help shorten outage duration. MEC’s line-hardening projects strengthen portions of the 69 kV sub-transmission and distribution lines by replacing wood poles with steel poles in various wind-prone areas of the service territory. Installing steel poles helps prevent the domino effect of the more vulnerable wood poles breaking and falling during storms.

Other projects include improvements to overhead lines, underground electric cable, substation equipment, fiber-optic network communication, tree and vegetation management, pole inspection, and wildlife protection and mitigation programs.

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