Analyzing Outage Causes & Our Commitment to Swift Power Restoration
As promised last month, I want to take a closer look at what has caused outages across our system in 2026 and how our team responds when the lights go out.
So far this year, 44% of all outage minutes have resulted from issues involving our power suppliers. These outages occur before electricity reaches our local distribution system and are completely outside of our REMC’s direct control.
Another 41% of outage minutes were caused by external factors such as severe weather, falling trees, vehicle accidents, wildlife, and other public activity. While we work to reduce the impact of these events through tree trimming and protective equipment, they cannot always be prevented.
The remaining 15% was due to internal causes, including equipment failures and maintenance work. These are the areas where we have the most direct control: to pre-schedule maintenance whenever possible, to inspect aging equipment and replace it before it fails, and to keep the electric grid in great shape.
Whatever the cause, our priority is to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. In 2026, 58% of outage events were restored in less than 2 hours, and another 20% within 2 to 4 hours. Longer outages typically involve extensive damage, difficult working conditions, specialized equipment, or a power-supply issue that must be resolved before we can restore service.
Every outage is different, but our goal is always the same: identify the cause, isolate the problem, make repairs safely, and restore the greatest number of members as quickly as possible. We know every minute without power matters, and we remain committed to improving reliability across our system.