Vectren electric crews, systems ready for storm season

Evansville, Indiana – Storm season is upon us and that typically means increased activity for Vectren’s electric crews in southwestern Indiana . During the month of April, Vectren is taking proactive steps to remind customers how to report an outage as well as the safety precautions to be aware of when dealing with downed power lines.

Vectren uses PowerOn*, a robust outage management tool that helps reduce service interruptions and improve reliability, to process outage calls. In fact, the outage entry portion of the PowerOn technology can handle 7,500 calls an hour and pinpoints outages based on the customer’s phone number and/or address.

To access PowerOn and report an outage, do the following:

1. Call 1-800-227-1376
2. Choose English or Spanish
3. Follow the prompts to report an electric outage
4. Enter 18-digit Vectren account number or the 10-digit home phone number associated with the address of the outage.
5. Request a callback from Vectren to confirm your power is restored. (optional)

“PowerOn dramatically improves our ability to assess damage and dispatch the right crew to expedite power restoration,” said Dan Bugher, vice president of information technology and customer service. “Furthermore, the self-service automation of the outage reporting process allows us to process more calls in less time and virtually eliminate any on-hold time for the customer.”

Last year, PowerOn processed more than 100,000 calls.

“It’s important that we help customers understand we’re working to ensure safe, reliable power and that keeping their lights on is priority number one,” added Bugher. “At the same time, it’s inevitable that storm season will trigger outages, and we want our customers to be able to help us respond quickly as well as be aware of safety concerns that naturally come along with downed lines.”

Downed power lines should be reported immediately to Vectren or the fire department. Customers should remember these safety precautions:

* Never come in close proximity to or touch a fallen power line.
* Never touch anything or anyone in contact with a power line as you could be shocked by contact with the line or a secondary object or person.
* When a live wire touches the ground, electricity fans out in a pool, similar to when a pebble hits water, with the voltage decreasing as it travels from the center. You can be shocked when in this area.

Vectren provides electric service to 140,000 customers in southern Dubois, southern Gibson, southwestern Pike, Posey, western Spencer, Vanderburgh and Warrick counties. Vectren operates nearly 6,000 miles of electric transmission and distribution lines with one third of its distribution lines housed underground.

*PowerOn is a registered trademark of General Electric Company.