News and Events

March 5 - Power is restored

March 4, 2013

4:08pm - March 5, 2013

All residential members are on as of 4:08pm, March 5. This completes our eight day restoration efforts and we will now turn our focus to commercial, fence chargers and water well accounts that our off due to last Monday’s storm. Sometime within the next few days we will summarize our storm damage along with recapping our successful restoration efforts.

We extremely express our most sincere gratitude to all KEC members. Your patience, understanding, support and kind acts have humbled our crews and KEC personnel. Thank you.

9pm update

Not much has changed since our 6pm update besides getting 44 members restored! We are now down to four residential meters without power. Our massive restoration effort will continue early in the morning and everyone will be able to flip the switch and enjoy the luxury of electricity again.

If you’re power is off we encourage you to call the office tomorrow and inform us. We have the capability to ping the meter and see if your power is on but if you pulled the meter or have a generator hooked up our system will not read it correctly. 

Our most sincere gratitude goes all too all our members. Most of you have understood what a difficult situation your cooperative was in and reached out with support for our employees and linemen. I can guarantee you that it has not gone unnoticed.

See you in the morning.

POWER ON – Austin Partida

6pm Update

As crews continue to work today, many of our outages are individual taps and lines that we continue to work on. This means possibly only one or two (or more) members are off in this area. Crews have worked all day just to get power restored to a couple of homes. Cooperatives are unique in such a way that KEC averages only 2.4 homes per mile of line. Other utilities such as investor owned or municipalities average 30-40 homes per mile of line.

Our 50 residential outages are mostly south and southwest of Medford and also southeast of Blackwell.  These two areas have many poles and other infrastructure that needs to be replaced. 

We hope to get a few members on tonight. But the majority will not be restored until tomorrow. Our massive restoration effort will continue until all residential meters are restored. If you’re power is off we encourage you to call the office tomorrow and inform us. We have the capability to ping the meter and see if your power is on but if you pulled the meter or have a generator hooked up our system will not read it correctly. 
 

10am Update

Day seven of restoration efforts continue for our crews. Our outage count in now fewer than 50 residential members and we hope to have all restored by this evening. Our massive restoration efforts continue with all 100 linemen still working to restore power. We appreciate all the support and understanding from our membership during these difficult times. There will be updates throughout the day.

9pm Update

These last six days have been very challenging, but yet rewarding for our crews and employees. It’s a great feeling for a line crew to set that last pole that will get a member on or an employee to receive a call saying “thank you, my power is back on.” Your cooperative is here to serve its members.

Our residential outages are now down to around 50 members. However, we do have a few commercial and farm accounts that are off. These will be restored after all residential accounts are on. Our crews continue to work tirelessly replacing poles, splicing wire and repairing cross arms system wide. We hope to have all residential members restored by tomorrow morning. Therefore, our massive restoration efforts of 100 linemen will continue until this task is complete.

Words cannot describe how humbled we all are from all the support and encouragement from our membership, families, community and local businesses throughout this very challenging week.

See you in the morning.

POWER ON – Austin Partida

5:15pm Update -

Our linemen are making their final push to restore power to all Kay Electric members. We are now less than 100 meters without power. Our outage map is currently unable to get an accurate count due to a few temporary changes, which is currently reading 178 outages. Great progress has been made today and will continue to be made throughout the rest of the evening. We hope to have all meters restored sometime tomorrow. All crews will continue our massive efforts until our operations department feels KEC crews can handle it. We will have an evening update later on.

11 am Update

Our current outage count is now a little more than 200. Our crews continue to replace poles all across our service territory. However, we do have multiply crews between Blackwell and Ponca, also southwest of Medford, North of Lamont and east of Pond Creek. We hope to restore power to a lot of these outages today and into tomorrow. Our most recent pole replacement count is at 504. Our massive restoration effort will continue all day today, tomorrow and as long as need be. We appreciate our members patience during these difficult times.

9:30pm Update

Our 100 linemen are making headway. These men represent 9 different utility entities from across the state. We began our restoration efforts in the wee hours on Tuesday. Since Tuesday, we have restored power to more than 4000 meters, replaced more than 200 poles, along with 200 cross arms and repaired lots of line. Our outage count is now down to a little over 200.  

As you can see, our outage count is down substantially. However, the remoteness of our damage is still presenting quite the challenge for our operations department. For example – On Thursday when a pole or two were replaced, multiply members would be on as a result. Presently, when we replace a pole or two, we are getting on only one or two members. This model will continue as our restoration efforts near completion.

Our most extreme gratitude goes out to our membership. Especially for those members whose power remains off. We understand how frustrating and cumbersome it can be without power. That’s why our efforts will continue tomorrow at 6 a.m. with all intentions of restoring power to these 200+ meters. It’s hard to say when all power will be restored, but it will be within the next couple of days.

Our crews and KEC personnel continue to work diligently and tirelessly for our membership. Our spirits remain high and very positive as “LIGHT” is being seen at the end of the line.

POWER ON – Austin Partida

Our outage numbers are slowly decreasing - 225. However, today has been a very challenging day for our crews. Over the last few days I’ve continued to mention how remote our damage is. Therefore, our crews are unable to surround an isolated location and restore power in more of a timely manner. We will continue to work diligently and yes, tirelessly until everyone is back on. We appreciate everyone’s patience and support during these difficult times. Our crews will continue to work this evening and into the night. We will have an update later tonight. 11:15am

6:30pm Update

Our crews continue to make progress. Our outage count is under 400. We believe we will decrease this number as the day goes on. We still have 100 linemen leading our restoration efforts all across our service territory. Our restoration efforts are not through yet. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel as we approach day six of restoration efforts. The last few days our focus was on getting main circuits energized. We are now branching off of these circuits and getting individual homes/businesses restored. Therefore, we might have to replace five to six poles to restore power to one member. As to when we energize a main circuit we get multiply members restored. This makes for somewhat of a slow process for our crews. We appreciate your patience and we will continue to work until all outages are restored.

9:15 pm Update

It’s time to partially celebrate. We had a very productive day. We are now down to less than 400 outages. For those 400 meters without power – we’re coming for you!
Our crews, along with our operations, engineers, customer service reps, accountants, warehousemen and even this communication guy has worked tirelessly and diligently to serve our membership. We will continue to do this until all outages are restored. Our most extreme gratitude goes out to those members who’ve supported us, baked for, assisted us and encouraged us – THANK YOU!!! Even though we are all exhausted we are doing this because this is what we love to do.

We understand the frustration of not having power. That’s why our restoration efforts will continue until everyone’s back on.

You know the drill, our efforts will resume early in the morning as we will continue to get more and more outages restored. I will be posting throughout the day tomorrow. Stay tuned.

POWER ON – Austin Partida

We are currently getting more members on as we speak. Our crews remain scattered across northern Oklahoma and are making great progress. However, we still have members without power. A more defined update will be posted this evening.

9 am update

We still have around 750 meters without power. We continue to mention our massive effort of restoring power. We have 100 linemen leading this effort. Our inside personnel is also working extremely hard to make sure all of the logistics are accounted for.

We have crews working in these areas:
Between Pond Creek and Lamont
South and North of Newkirk and around Chilocco area
East and South of Blackwell
South of Tonkawa

Our pole replacement count is near 300. As our efforts continue we will post updates. We appreciate your patience and you can believe that your cooperative is doing all it can do for its members.
 

10pm Update

Day three of restoration efforts are concluding. We started today with 1700 meters without power. We are glad to share with you that the outage count is now 750 meters. As you can see, progress was made today. However, we still have members off. We understand the frustration of not having power. I can promise you, KEC employees and our mutual aid crews are working diligently to restore these 750 meters. We were able to dig in on our outage count primarily due to a few main circuits being restored. A few of the areas restored were members east and west of Ponca City, Deer Creek area, south of Newkirk and a few members along Hubbard Road. I know I sound like a recording, but our outages are extremely remote. We have crews in all five counties we serve. Therefore, it’s difficult to relay an exact point where are crews are working because they’re all over northern Oklahoma – All 100 of them.  With that said we still have main circuits down or damaged. This will remain our primary focus tomorrow. As of 4pm this evening our downed pole count was more than 300. I believe tomorrow will be another very productive day for KEC and its members. I’ve witnessed first-hand, just how lucky we are to be surrounded by such great people. This has been a very humbling experience for all KEC employees and our mutual aid crews. Our members have shown extreme gratitude and have gone above and beyond to show their support for their COOPERATIVE. Unfortunately, Mother Nature has taken its toll on freezer goods, refrigerator goods and other household items for those members without power. These circumstances can be very frustrating. But believe me, we will continue our massive effort of restoration until all residential members are on.  
Our crews are called in for the night and will begin at 6am in the morning. Again, it’s imperative to get these gentlemen a good meal, shower and a little rest, as tomorrow will be another very long day.
Thank you for your patience, support and most of all understanding the severity of this difficult situation.

Power On – Austin Partida – MR/PR Rep.

 1:30 pm update

Our crews continue to work tirelessly and diligently to restore power to our members. We have restored power to some members today, and we hope to report by this evening even more power restored to members homes. We continue to replace poles, cross arms and splice wire. It is very hard for us to relay the message on when an exact time of power restoration will take place. As the crews make progress and repair infrastructure we will have a better understanding on just how long it will take to restore power. We appreciate your patience, and you can believe all employees are working as they possibly can.

9 am Update

Day three of our restoration efforts are in action. We currently have 1700 meterswithout power, more than 200 poles down, more than 200 cross arms that need to be replaced and also many services in need of repair. Three sister cooperatives will be arriving throughout the morning to assist with our efforts. When they arrive we will have almost 100 linemen dispersed throughout our service territory. It’s is difficult for us to share when exactly power will come on and where. However, we have multiply crews in each county – Kay, Osage, Grant, Garfield and Noble. These linemen are working diligently to restore power as quick as possible with safety as their #1 priority. As the day progresses we will share with you the amount of poles replaced and our progress being made. We appreciate your patience as we all deal with these troublesome times. 

9 pm update

As we conclude our restoration efforts for today we can share with you that we restored power to roughly 300 members. The restored outages were in the Grainola/Foraker areas, north of the Hohmann Substation and along 13^thst off of Hubbard Rd. This is great news for some members, but we still have around 1500 meters without power tonight. Our crews were able to make progress today, slow, but progress was made. Our outages and damages areas remain system wide. We have crews spread throughout our service territory replacing poles, cross arms and splicing wire. Our current pole replacement is around 200 and rising. We have more than 200 cross arms to replace as well. All of the KEC employees have worked diligently to serve our members. We have assistance from four contractor crews and three sister cooperatives. As the day progressed, more damage was found. Therefore, we have called in three more sister cooperatives to assist with our restoration efforts. This will total almost 100 linemen, which is a massive amount of guys. It is not easy organizing and strategically planning for this many people. However, you can believe you cooperative is up to the task and will do what it takes to get the power back on for all members. Our crews will be heading in soon for the night. Their last bite to eat was at lunch, which, was a sacked lunch. As we stated last night, it’s imperative to get these gentlemen a good dinner, shower and a short-night’s rest as they begin another long day tomorrow morning. We will continue with our restoration efforts at 6am in the morning and hope to make even more progress than today. We understand the difficulty of this situation for our members. Electricity is a vital part to everyone’s daily life. We are doing our very best to be as safe and quick in our restoration efforts as possible. We are extremely humbled by the support and understanding by most of our members. We will be as informative as we can with you. We have a massive restoration effort taking place. We are gathering as many resources as possible to expedite any issue we possibly can. Again, your COOPERATION is greatly appreciated and we will continue our efforts until everyone is restored. We wish the best for you tonight and we will have an update in the morning. 

1pm update - Austin Partida

I am glad to share with you that progress is being made. That being said, we still have 1800+ meters without power. Our crews, office personnel and warehousemen are working diligently as I type this message. We have crews all over northern Oklahoma.
Grant County – Crews are repairing lines and replacing poles around Medford and the Hohmann Substation.
Kay County – Crews are working along HWY 11 east of Blackwell and Hubbard Rd. replacing poles, line and cross arms. We are also working south of Tonkawa near our Fountain Substation.
Noble and Garfield – KEC personnel are currently assessing the damage and seeing where we need to send crews.
Osage – We have crews around the Grainola and Foraker areas replacing cross arms and poles.
We have received a few calls asking us if the planned outage by OG&E affecting Newkirk will hinder our efforts; the answer is no.
We are still receiving calls or finding damage as the day goes on. We highly expect for this to continue for a few more day. We understand the longevity of these outages can be very frustrating. We will continue to work long days and nights until all members are restored. We appreciate your patience and hopefully this afternoon we will have some more people on.
 

7:30am update –

Good morning everyone – Our crews are out and ready to restore power today. We have 1815 members currently without power, which are widespread. We have 70+ linemen leading our restoration efforts. They are associated with digger trucks, bucket trucks, pole trucks and work trucks, all which aid and expedite the rebuilding of a downed pole. The current count of downed poles are 150 along with 150 cross arms having to be replaced. As the day goes on, we will update the whereabouts of our crews and their progress. We have sent out bag lunches with the linemen, which were prepared by KEC office personnel.  Therefore, the crews will be out in the field all day long. We are extremely humbled by the patience and understanding from our members. The kind words and encouraging comments are greatly appreciated. There will be another update after lunch.

9:30pm update

Our crews were able to get a few more members on this evening. We are now under the 2000 without power, which is more than 50% of our peak outage. Transmission line issues were resolved today which played a big role in restoring power to the 2300 meters. It is very difficult to outline or pinpoint where we’re focusing on due to the widespread damage. We have pole down, cross arms fractured, line snapped and meter poles broken all across the five counties we serve. We have four additional contractor crews assisting us along with two crews from Verdigris Valley and one from Canadian Valley. 
We have pulled all the crews in for the night and will start back at 6 am. We believe it’s imperative to get these hardworking linemen a good meal and a good night’s rest as they prepare for tomorrow’s long day. Our operations, engineering and staking departments have been working diligently to get a plan in place so that all crews will be able to work efficiently these next few days. As you can see, we’ve added almost 300 fans over the last 24 hours. We believe it’s important for you to know what’s going on and also what are crews are dealing with. There have been a few challenges the last 24 hours.

1. Public Safety – We had lines across highways, houses and other structures. 2. Roads – As much as we need the moisture, it has presented quite the challenge for our crews as they navigate through the countryside. 3. System Wide Outages – As previously mentioned, we have damage across Kay, Noble, Grant, Garfield and Osage counties. As soon as we were able to assess the damage and realize just how much trouble we had, we immediately called for assistance.

You’ve heard this all day, your support and words of encouragement are greatly appreciated. We are going on 24 hours of restoration efforts and we will continue this mass approach until all members are back on.

See you in the morning!

4:30pm update -
We are making minimal headway. However, we do have all but one substation restored. We have cut into our peak outage of 4300 to now 2400 meters. Our crews will continue to work this evening and into the early night. We will be bringing all crews in to rest up, eat and reenergize tonight, as tomorrow will be another very long day. We understand not having power is very uncomfortable to our members. As we all know, Mother Nature will do as she pleases. Therefore, we are very thankful for all the kind words and support our membership has given today, it is greatly appreciated. Our Facebook page has reached an all-time following of 1000+ fans and over 5000 views since last night.  We will have an update later this evening. As a few of us are off to Ponca City for Dr. Tim Blanton’s District 8 Meeting.

2:30pm update – Feb. 26

We continue assessing the damage from last night’s winter storm. Our crews continue to navigate through the not-so-friendly roads as they replace cross arms, poles and repair wire. We currently have more than 3100 meters without service. Our crews will continue to work diligently throughout the evening and into the night. This will be a multi-day restoration effort for our cooperative. We currently have two contractor crews assisting our linemen and two more are on their way. We also have Verdigris Valley Electric Cooperative bringing two crews and Canadian Valley Electric Cooperative bringing a crew to assist with our restoration efforts. These two co-ops will be arriving this evening. We understand the inconvenience of this situation and we truly appreciate your patience. We are sharing the kind words and support we are getting with our employees. As always, KEC strives to provide affordable, reliable and safe electricity to its members. We will have another update this evening. 

10am

A message from C.E.O. Joe Harris - We
 have massive damage from last night’s storm.  The combination of very wet snow and high winds caused many poles to break, cross arm failures and line breakage. We have more than 4000 meters without out power.
We also are having problems with OGE transmission that has several substations off.  We are clearing railroad and highways of lines so that traffic can move safely and not create further damage to the system.  We are still accessing the total damage to the system, and it will take most of the day to identify the problem areas.  We have called in all of the contract crews currently available and have made the mutual aid call to our sister cooperatives across the state for assistance. We appreciate your patience, and I can guarantee you that your cooperative will work diligently to get power safely restored.

6:30am update –

As day breaks, we will be assessing the damage and putting together a plan of restoration. We currently have more than 3,000 meters off. We are aware of downed lines, broken cross arms, transmission problems, along with other distribution problems. We understand this is a very frustrating time for our members. However, we can guarantee you our employees will do all they can to get electricity restored in a safe manner. Our outages stretch all over our system. Therefore, it will take some time for us to navigate through the impassable country roads. We will be looking at all resources; Dozers, tractors and additional linemen to assist in our restoration efforts. We will post another update as the morning goes along. Your patience is greatly appreciated during these difficult times.