Power Outage FAQs & What You Need to Know (2024)

If Avista is performing planned work that might interrupt your service, you’ll receive a notice. For example, we may need to turn power off to perform maintenance or upgrade equipment. Here is our process:

• You'll get notification from us the day prior to the outage
• We'll provide a time range and try to honor it
• We may cancel a scheduled outage due to weather and operational issues

Helpful tips to prepare for a scheduled outage:

• Keep your refrigerator and freezer doors closed
• Buy additional ice if necessary
• Learn how to manually open your security gates and garage doors
• Notify any security companies that monitor your home or business
• Protect computers, televisions, and other sensitive equipment from surges by unplugging them

If your power goes out and you didn't receive a notice from us, report it. Or, call us at (800) 227-9187.

Sometimes nature finds a way to interfere, despite our best efforts. Severe weather is one of the most common reasons for power outages. And these severe weather conditions can cause trees to fall and knock out power lines. Animals can also wreak havoc on power lines and cause outages.

Weather: Lightning, strong winds, heavy rain, snow, ice, and even excessive heat and cold can impact electrical equipment. Recent research suggests that nearly half of power outages are caused by severe weather conditions such as thunderstorms. A common question is: Why does the power go out during a storm?

• Severe weather causes power outages and interruptions by knocking down power lines, blowing objects into overhead lines, flooding power-related equipment, or damaging insulation, resulting in blown fuses
• When lightning strikes over or in the near proximity to an electrical conductor (e.g. street wires), the charge to the conductor can trip all of the substation circuit breakers, leading to blackouts

Animals: Squirrels, raccoons, or other animals can make contact with electrical equipment, including getting into “feeders” of local substations, thereby causing power outages.

• Animals are to blame for thousands of power outages and millions of dollars in related damage each year
• The top four critters that caused power outages in 2019 were squirrels, birds, raccoons, and snakes, in that order

Trees: Fallen trees can bring down power lines and branches can get tangled in power lines. Most often, this is associated with severe weather. The good news is you can take steps to help prevent these occurrences. Visit our tree safetysection to learn more about keeping trees in check.

Different scenarios involving Mother Nature can cause damage to various equipment.

Pole fires: Although infrequent, wooden poles can catch fire and cause power outages. Following a long spell of dry weather, dirt covering the insulators that connect wires to the top of power poles can become conductive when exposed to moisture (e.g. a rain shower). This can create a path that enables electricity to travel from the wires to the pole. If the “dirt path” gets hot enough, the pole will catch fire. This phenomenon can happen anytime build-up impacts insulators, including after the winter thaw or following a long, hot summer.

Mast damage: In some instances, our power lines connect to your home through a piece of equipment called the overhead mast:

Here's how it might cause an outage:

• If a tree falls into it, or a branch gets entangled, the overhead mast bends away from the house.
• Or, the fitting might break, compromising where the wire connects to the meter.

We might have to shut off your power as a result of either of these events. And, we'll need your help—for safety reasons, we have to ask you to have a licensed electrician make the repairs before we can turn the power back on.

Report a gas leak: Smell or hear a gas leak? Move to safety and call (800) 227-9187 immediately from a cell phone or neighbor's phone.

Report an electric outage:

• Report an outage online
• Download the Avista app for real-time information right on your mobile device including an outage map and an alert center.
• Receive text notifications by texting "REG" to AVISTA (284782). Read our Privacy Policy and Guidelines. Standard messaging and data rates may apply. Text "STOP" at any time to stop receiving texts.
• Call Avista customer service at (800) 227-9187 to report an outage and get more information about the following:
  • When Avista was first notified about the outage
  • The cause of the outage, if known
  • How many people the outage affected
  • The status of our crews (e.g. whether they have been dispatched or are already on site)
  • The anticipated time-frame for resolution and restoration of power

The underlying cause of the outage helps us estimate when your power will be restored. Please keep in mind that the expected time for restoration may be updated once the crew arrives on site and evaluates the situation.

Avista formulates the estimated time of power outages and a power restoration estimate based on several factors. The underlying cause of the outage is a key factor.

During normal operations

If an outage occurs and the weather isn't a contributing factor, our system establishes an initial estimated restoration time based on historical data of post-outage experience. Once a crew arrives on-site and evaluates the situation, the estimated restoration time may be updated.

During storm operations

1. Plan: When the forecast calls for storms, we schedule staffing and response coordination so we're ready to restore your power as soon as it’s safe to do so.
2. Assess the damage: We specify estimated times of restoration only after damage assessments are completed.
3. Begin power restoration: Once weather and safety conditions clear up, we focus on restoring power to critical infrastructures first (e.g. transmission lines and substations, and emergency facilities like hospitals). Assessments continue and restoration times are updated accordingly.
4. Complete restoration: If your power is still out after restoration is confirmed, check your equipment for these potential issues:
   • The overhead mast is bent and pulled away from the house, causing a wire to hang
   • A bent mast broke the fitting where the wire connects to your electric meter
   • A broken meter fitting caused an arc or burned meter socket

   All repairs need to be done by a licensed electrician before we can safely restore power to your home.

If you received information that power has been restored in your area and your lights are still out, please contact Avista at (800) 227-9187.

To learn more about how we restore power, watch our video.

1) Our top priority: Facilities essential to the health and welfare of the community receive priority. This includes hospitals; healthcare providers; emergency services; public safety, water, and sewage stations; and other vital community services.

2) Next, we service areas in which the greatest number of people can be helped in the shortest period of time. We start at the source of the power outage and work outward to restore electrical service. For instance, if we have the ability to restore 2,000 customers or 100 customers, 2,000 customers are given preference.