A power outage always seems to occur at the most inconvenient time; this isn’t surprising since there is never a convenient time to lose your electricity at the office or at home. Part of preparing for these situations involves knowing what causes the power outages. Your electric providers at Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative, Inc. in Hernandez, NM, have explained a few of the most common causes of a blackout and what you can do about them.

The Top Causes of Power Outages

1. Downed Utility Poles and Broken Electric Lines

The most common cause of a community blackout is a downed utility pole or broken electric wire. You’ve likely gotten so used to those poles and wires in your neighborhood that you don’t even notice them anymore, but they are everywhere. When one pole goes down or breaks, power to the entire community can be lost until it’s repaired.

Storms can cause this with high winds that create flying debris or cause trees to fall onto the lines. Accidents such as people running into the poles or electric wires with their vehicles can also bring a utility pole down and break lines. It’s difficult to prevent these accidents, but installing a backup power source for your own building can allow you to keep functioning until your electric service provider is able to get power up and running again. 

2. Disrupted Underground Lines

In addition to the overhead lines, power lines run under the ground. Excavation work can disrupt service. This may be planned, such as if your water department is doing line repair work in an area and needs to shut off the power, in which case you’ll receive notice of the outage. It may also be unplanned, such as when someone starts digging in their yard and hits a line. If you are planning to do any digging in your own yard, make sure and call 811 or visit www.nm811.org for this statewide service to have all utility lines safely located and marked before you start.

3. Weather

Lightning, rain, snow, and wind all can contribute to power outages. Many times equipment on the line detect abnormal conditions and will automatically turn the power off, sometimes for a few seconds or if the abnormal condition remains it will turn off the power completely. This allows trained linemen to patrol the line and identify causes, make repairs and then re-energize the line.

4. Overload

If your power goes out and it is just your home, more than likely you may have more electric consumption going on at one time than your home’s electric system was designed to handle. Breakers are designed to operate and disconnect electricity when this happens for safety reasons. To prevent this issue in your own building, hire an NM-licensed electrician to analyze how much power you use and determine whether your current system is properly set up to handle the load.

You can trust the workers at Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative, Inc. to provide dependable power at an affordable price. When the power does go out, you can be assured there are trained electrical linemen on call to respond immediately to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Also know that lines and poles are inspected and scheduled for necessary equipment replacement and tree removal to help reduce power outages and ensure that your electrical system is properly set up for safety and efficiency. When there’s an outage, call the outage hotline at 1-877-753-0095 and follow the prompts on the automated outage system. For all other questions, you can contact the electric cooperative at (505) 753-2105 or visit online and look for the outage map link at the top of the page.