Power Restoration: A Cooperative Effort

Here’s what we do to get your lights back on: Getting the power back on during an outage involves a lot more than “flipping a switch.” It’s a sequential process that kicks into gear when you let us know you’re in the dark. Here’s how it works:

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Your lights go out. 24-Hour Member Our Outage Computer Aided CAD dispatches an The dispatched line Your lights are Remember, the Connection records Management Dispatch (CAD) outage “ticket.” technician heads to back on! The line process starts with outage information. System (OMS) locates the closest CAD transmits an the trouble site. technician fixes you. Call us to Our automated identifies the line technician. electronic repair The line technician the damaged report the outage. phone attendant, trouble source. Our OMS transfers the request to the transmits an electrical The more calls we or a Member state-of-the-art trouble source laptop computer in electronic response equipment and receive, the faster Services computer analyzes information to CAD, the truck of the through his laptop restores the power. we can identify the Representative, outage information, which uses GPS line technician computer to CAD He then sends an source of the records member and quickly technology to who is closest to accepting the job, electronic report trouble – and the outage reports identifies the locate the line the outage. and then reports to back to CAD faster we can get into each source and location technician closest the problem area. indicating that the your lights back on. customer’s account. of the outage. to the trouble. job is complete. Should your lights go out: Call us to report the outage While all the behind-the-scenes technology enables us to work both quickly and efficiently, we ultimately rely on you, our members, to provide us with outage information. Never assume someone else already has reported the outage. Hearing from each person helps us identify affected areas and pinpoint the problem. So by all means, call us when your lights go out. Coldspring: 936-653-5400 Livingston: 936-327-5711 Sam Houston Woodville: 409-283-8251 ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. Toll-free: 1-800-458-0381 Energizing Communities Since 1939 Tune-in to your local TV and radio stations. To keep our members informed in the event of a major power outage, Sam Houston EC has partnerships with several TV and radio broadcast stations to distribute information about who is affected, and to the extent possible, the expected duration of the outage. Once you’ve reported the outage, listen for outage he thick, luscious Piney Woods of East updates and information on local stations. Texas are a wonderful place to call home. While the scenic landscape and abundant wildlife Be patient The extent of damage to our electrical system dictates the draw us to live here, they can wreak havoc on length of time you could be left without power. Rest assured our electric distribution system. Finding and our crews understand the inconvenience to our members and fixing electrical equipment damaged by a fallen tree always work as quickly as possible to get the lights back on. Tduring a storm or shorted out by a pesky critter can Sam Houston EC thanks you for your patience while we present quite a challenge for Sam Houston EC line complete the power restoration process. technicians. Why? Because a large percentage of the 6,000 miles of distribution lines that serve our 50,000 members’ homes and businesses are strung through remote, heavily wooded areas. Create an Emergency Kit To combat the consequences of Mother Even common household items can be hard to find in the Nature’s inevitable fury, Sam Houston EC has dark, so take a few minutes to prepare an “outage kit” and intricate, behind the scenes processes to restore store it in a drawer by your telephone or someplace where everyone in the household knows to look for it. Your kit should include: members’ power as quickly as possible during an • The telephone number of the Sam Houston EC branch near you outage. Some of the most important include: • Your account number • A flashlight Protective Devices Outage Management System • Extra batteries • A battery-powered radio First and foremost, our Our Outage Management • A wind-up or battery-operated clock massive electric system is System (OMS) enables us to • A traditional phone or cell phone (Remember, your cordless phone won’t constructed with protective analyze outage calls as they operate without electricity!) devices like fuses and come in and pinpoint the Emergency Broadcast Resources circuit breakers that source of trouble in as little Tune-in to these stations for up-to-date outage information: confine power outages to time as a few minutes. Beaumont Houston Liberty/Dayton smaller areas, thereby Computer Aided Dispatch TV KBMT ABC 12 TV KHOU CBS 11 Radio KSHN-FM 99.9 minimizing the number of KBTV NBC 4 KPRC NBC 2 Livingston Every line technician’s truck KFDM CBS 6 KRIV FOX 26 Radio KETX-FM 92.3 members without power. KTRK ABC 13 is equipped with a laptop Radio KIOC-FM 106.1 Lufkin Global Positioning Satellite computer, which is directly KKMY-FM 104.5 Radio KIKK-AM 650 TV KFXL-LP FOX 30 KLVI-AM 560 KIKK-FM 95.7 We use Global Positioning linked to computer-aided KTRE ABC 9 KTFA-FM 92.5 KILT-AM 610 Radio KRBA-AM 1340 Satellite (GPS) technology dispatch (CAD) software in KYKR-FM 95.1 KILT-FM 100.3 KSFA-AM 860 to maintain an electronic our Dispatch Department. Conroe KTRH-AM 640 KTBQ-FM 107.7 map showing the location A GPS unit in each of our 62 Radio KVST-FM 103.7 Huntsville KYKS-FM 105.1 Radio KUST-FM 99.7 of every line, meter and Sam Houston EC trucks Diboll Silsbee Radio KAFX-FM 95.5 Jasper Radio KSET-AM 1300 transformer on our electric allows dispatchers to know Radio KTXJ-AM 1350 distribution system. their whereabouts at all times. Woodville KWYX-FM 102.7 Radio KWUD-AM 1490