When there’s a big outage, our linemen sometimes have to bring sections of customers back on bit by bit.

We can see problems if lots of electrical devices that use plenty of power (like water heaters, space heaters, and electric heating systems), all try to come back on at the same time. This large rush of current is called “cold load pickup”, and it can sometimes cause problems on the system. That’s why linemen sometimes have to bring customers back on in stages, delaying restoration times for all customers.

If you follow our advice, and turn off those energy hogs until at least 20 minutes after power has been restored, everyone can get their electricity back on faster.