President’s Message – June 2024

5 Things to Know About Power Restoration

Have you ever watched a video or TV show where a person is cooking a meal, then suddenly, they snap their fingers, and the meal is plated and ready to eat? That’s called a jump cut. While we wish we could “jump cut” from a power outage to power restoration, it can often take a lot more effort and people to make it happen.

As the president of the Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative (GCEC) Board of Trustees, I’m accustomed to members’ questions about power outages and why it can take time to get the lights back on. Given our reliance on electricity, there’s simply never a good time to be without it.

This month, I’d like to shed light on our restoration process to help our members understand what may be happening behind the scenes. Here are 5 things you might not know about restoration:

• We need you. When your power goes out, it might be just at your home or a small section of a neighborhood. There is a chance we may not know about it, and no one has reported it. We rely on you to let us know if your power is out. To report a power outage, call any of the numbers to the left of this article. You may also use our app or log in to the member portal on our website. Please do not rely on the contact form on our website or Facebook comments and messages to report power outages, as we cannot guarantee monitoring of web forms and Facebook notifications 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Our employees might be affected, too. Because Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative is a local electric cooperative owned by the members we serve, our employees are local, too. They are your neighbors, friends, and familiar community volunteers. When you’re without power, our people might be, too.
• It’s a team effort. All of Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative’s employees work to restore your power as soon as possible. Our member services representatives take your calls, engineers and field staff survey damage, our vegetation management team clears hazards, dispatchers organize crews and communicators keep everyone informed of progress or potential dangers.
• We assess the situation first. Every outage is different, and we don’t know how dangerous it is or what equipment might need to be replaced. When responding to outages, we first need to see what happened, then figure out which materials we need and a plan for how to fix the problem(s) without compromising electric flow for the rest of our members.
• Restoration is normally prioritized by the largest number of members we can restore power to in the shortest amount of time. Our crews focus on responding first to public safety issues and critical services. Then, we complete work that impacts the largest number of people first.

We do our best to avoid power disruptions, but they are inevitable from time to time. If the lights go out, know that your co-op team is working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power. If you experience an outage, please let us know by calling or using our app or website.