Reporting an Outage Just Got Easier
We’ve made some recent improvements that will make reporting an outage a better experience for you, the customer.
Reporting an outage through our automated phone system
The improvements we’ve made will work best if we have a current phone number on your account. Our system will only recognize your outage if you are calling from a number, or numbers, that are tied to your Central Lincoln account. When you call our number — (877) 265-3211 — you will hear an automated greeting and then options to pay your bill or report a power outage. Press 2 to report your outage.
If the phone number you are calling from matches an account and the account is part of an outage:
- The system will tell you that we are aware of an outage in your area and then you can simply hang up.
If the phone number you are calling from does not match an account:
- The system will not be able to look up your account and will suggest you update your phone number by pressing 1.
- If you want to use a different phone number or account number to report an outage, press 2.
Reporting an outage online through SmartHub or by using the SmartHub app on your phone
If you’re using SmartHub, you can log on and report your outage there as well.
If your account is part of an existing outage:
- You will see an alert at the top of the page informing you that we are working to resolve outages in your area.
If you are reporting an outage that has not already been detected:
- Select Report an Issue/Inquiry, then Power Outage, then the account that is out of power, provide any additional comments and select send.
We Rely on You
Oftentimes, our automated meter infrastructure (AMI) system alerts us to an outage before a customer notifies us. This happens when a meter sends a “last gasp” alert to our outage management system (OMS) within a minute or so of losing power—letting us know exactly where the outage is by sending a notification to our outage map and to our operations dispatch personnel. The dispatcher will go through a quick troubleshooting process and then begin dispatching crews.
Inclement weather, excessive network traffic, dense foliage and very remote and rural locations are some of the reasons a meter might not be able to send its “last gasp.” For these reasons, we still rely on customers to call and report their outage to us at (877) 265-3211.
