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ALPENA – As of 7 p.m. on Thursday, 85% of Alpena Power Company (APC) customers have been restored, leaving approximately 2,500 customers without power, according to an APC press release.

All available crews were working to restore outages including assistance from Thunder Bay Tree Service , The City of Lowell, The City of Bay City, City of Sturgis, City of Lansing, Homeworks Tri County Cooperative, Thumb Electric Cooperative, the HydakerWheatlake Company, Premium Utility Contracting, and Kappan Tree Service. In total, 41 contract and mutual aid crews are assisting APC employees in the restoration effort.

“We express our thanks to the utilities and contractors helping in this difficult time,” APC stated in the release.

RESTORATION PROCESS

The restoration process is designed to get essential services energized first then the largest number of customers on as quickly as possible, according to the release. APC’s process consists of five stages:

1. Essential functions such as hospitals, 911, police, fire, water, sewer, etc.

2. Services such as fuel, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc.

3. Main feeder and distribution lines

4. Areas with the largest number of customers

5. Restore individual homes

“Continuous progress has been made. In many areas we are moving into the last phase of our restoration process, restoring service drops to individual homes,” the release stated.

APC explained that while in the final stage of restoration, some customers may experience a short duration outage as repairs are made to other customers connected to the same transformer. If your power has been restored and you experience an outage, please do the following:

– Look around your home for utility crews, specifically in the direction of your service

conductors.

– If you see utility workers, please be patient as the outage should be less than 30 minutes.

– If you do not see utility workers and your outage has lasted longer than 30 minutes, please report to APC.

– Waiting 30 minutes to report the outage will not add to your restoration time.

SAFETY TIPS

APC advises customers to keep the following safety tips in mind amid a power outage:

– If using a generator, ensure it is connected properly and legally with a transfer switch so they cannot back feed into the power lines and cause danger to our crews or the public.

– Always operate a generator outdoors in a well-ventilated space.

– Stay at least 25 feet away from downed wires and anything they are touching, keep children or pets away. Report the issue by calling 9-1-1 and APC at (989) 358-4900.

– Drivers should slow down or stop and wait for oncoming traffic to clear so they can safely go past our workers on the roadside.

– Turn main breakers off if there is standing water anywhere near electrical devices.