If your power goes out, please call us at (270) 887-4216 to let us know. If the phone is busy, we are most likely already aware of the outage because we receive hundreds of calls during an outage. We do our best to post outage information to our Facebook page and activate the orange alert bar on our website to keep you informed. Once you have informed us of your outage, additional phone calls are unnecessary. Our new outage map shows all homes that are without power.
Outage Restoration Process
1.Remove any public safety threats, such as downed power lines on the street or ground.
2.Restore power to HES substations (power distribution points)
3.Repair main distribution lines.
4.Repair single phase lines that serve subdivisions and residential customers.
5.Repair individual service lines going directly to homes or businesses.
How to help HES during an outage
After a storm passes, if you are aware of damage to a utility pole or lines, the best thing you can do is provide us with the address, a description of the damage, and if possible, photos of the damage. During previous outages, customers have sent this information to us on our Facebook page, or by using the Facebook Messenger app, which we continually monitor during outages. By getting this information to us as quickly as possible, this eliminates the need for us to drive the electric circuits ourselves to find the problems. This in turns allows us to begin repairs quicker, shortening the total duration of the outage.
Service Entrance Damage: During a severe storm, it is not uncommon for the electric service entrance on a home or business to be damaged. If the service entrance is damaged, it is the property owner’s responsibility to have the service entrance repaired by a licensed electrician and inspected by a KY certified electrical inspector before HES can reattach the electric service line and restore power to the home or business.
Once the service entrance has been repaired, it must be inspected by a KY Certified Electrical Inspector. A list of local certified electrical inspectors is below.
- Mark Gary- (270) 305-9256
- Roger Guinn- (270) 350-2385
- Donald Henry- (270) 556-3377
- Lewis Hopper- (270) 886-7964
- John Jenkins- (270) 952-2301
- Terrill Snodgrass- (270) 543-2747
(If you are a Kentucky-certified electrical inspector and would like to be added to this list, email: engineering@hop-electric.com)
Outage FAQs
(click on a question to reveal the answer)
We do need an initial call to know that power is out. However, if you call and the phone line is busy, it’s because we receive hundreds of calls during an outage. By that time, we are most likely aware of your outage. Once we are aware of an outage and access our new outage system map, we are aware of all addresses that do not have power. If you notice that your neighbors lights and area street lights are back on and your power is not restored, you should call us at 887-4200, or post a comment on our Faceboook page, or send us a message on Facebook Messenger so we can determine why your power was not restored.
It is always our goal to restore power to our customers as quickly as possible. For most small outages, power should be restored within 2 hours or less. However, after a major storm, damage to the electric system can be widespread and comprehensive. In these cases, our crews typically work 12-14 hour days to repair the electric system. However, restoring power to a neighborhood may require multiple repairs to restore the path power takes to reach your home. For this reason, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of hours required to make all necessary repairs. .
If it is apparent that your power may not be restored for days, you may need to take steps to protect your health and safety. Customers requiring electricity for medical devices may need to relocate to another house or facility that has power until their electric service is restored. You may need to consider steps to preserve refrigerated and frozen food. During winter, it may be possible to store frozen foods outside until power is restored. During summer, it is best to not open freezers if possible to maintain the lowest temperatures in the freezer..
It is important to first check your fuse or breaker box to see if a fuse is blown and a circuit breaker has tripped. If this is not the problem, the next step is to check the service line from the pole to the house. If this line is damaged, contact HES to request a repair. If the electric service mast on your house has been damaged, it must be repaired by a licensed electrician before HES can reconnect power to it. If the service line to your house is underground, it is very unlikely that it has been damaged. It is also possible that your neighbor’s house receives electricity from a different primary line than your house..
One of the first steps to power restoration during an outage is to identify the problem. There are times when our lineman drive an electric circuit while looking for the problem. It is also possible that the problem has been identified and your house happens to lie along the path they take to reach the problem. Rest assured that if you see our trucks in your area, our crews are working diligently to restore your power as quickly as possible..
HES will post information to the HES website and Facebook page as quickly as possible to keep our customers informed during an outage. Our new electronic meters allow us to determine exactly which houses are without power during an outage, so it is unnecessary to inform us multiple times that your power is out. Please be patient and realize that our linemen typically work 14-16 hour days during widespread outages..
