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.
