Frequently Asked Questions About Power Restoration
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To help you quickly and easily find the answers you need, we've assembled these frequently asked questions. If you can't find what you need to know, use our search engine or go to our Brochure Center.
We encourage our customers to call KCP&L at 1-888-LIGHTKC (1-888-544-4852) to report an outage, or report it online. This helps us identify and analyze the specific problem and restore power more quickly. Some portions of our service area have newer technologies that send us a signal when outages occur, but your phone call helps us form a more complete inventory of outages. What happens when a customer reports an outage? Each call has a work order generated. The orders are sent through our outage management system for analysis to determine the outage's most likely cause. Orders are then dispatched to troubleshooters who go to the locations of the outages to assess the problem. If the troubleshooters can't repair the problem, a line crew is called out to make repairs. How does KCP&L go about restoring service? Our restoration plans are designed to get power back on to the most people in the shortest time possible. KCP&L's around-the-clock Operations Team uses information from customer calls along with a computerized substation monitoring system to quickly assess the nature and extent of power outages when they occur. The outage reports are sorted according to established guidelines and crews are quickly assigned to begin service restoration efforts. How do you decide whose service to restore first? These are our guidelines for prioritizing service restoration:
Who's responsible for repairs when the meter is damaged? Kansas City Power & Light is responsible for the service line from pole to premise and the meter. The homeowner owns the service bracket, the weatherhead, the riser pipe and the meter can that must be attached to the house by the homeowner. View a diagram that explains the relationship of these items to your premise. Why does my neighbor have power and I don't? Electricity gets from power plants to your home over a complex grid of lines and equipment, and the restoration plans following outages are designed to get power back to the most people in the shortest time. Do customers on medical support equipment receive priority service? KCP&L's Medical Customer program provides special consideration during service outages for customers with extreme medical conditions. It is recommended that individuals using medical or life-support equipment invest in private back-up power systems and develop alternative care plans to ensure safety and security. Can you tell me exactly when my power will be restored? Several factors are involved in service restoration efforts that affect our ability to predict when restoration will occur. When a crew arrives to make repairs, it must investigate the outage's cause. The crew may encounter complex problems that require additional time, equipment or crews. Field crews do, however, radio back status information and restoration efforts on area problems. You can check Storm Restoration Updates to see where crews are currently working. How does KCP&L handle increased calls during major outages? Our entire staff of customer service representatives is on-call during large outages of extended duration. We also add additional phone lines to handle customer calls into our Call Center. Our Interactive Voice Response system allows us to handle thousands of calls simultaneously. Does KCP&L have a special storm response plan when major outages occur? Yes. KCP&L's Storm Emergency Response Program (SERP) was created in the early 1980s to establish standard operating procedures for rapid restoration of service, and to respond with a total commitment of large quantities of manpower and equipment. This plan is reviewed annually and updated as required. The most common causes of outages are:
What does KCP&L do to reduce the incidence of outages? Reducing the number and duration of outages is KCP&L's goal:
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