MGE Update and Storm Clean-Up Operations Update for June 15, 2022

Update from MGE:

June 15, 2022, 11:30 a.m.? 

MGE Continues to Restore Service
 
Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) continues to restore service to customers impacted by Monday afternoon's storm. Approximately 1,200 customers are still without service as of 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday, June 15.

Due to the extent of the storm damage, crews are still working to address approximately 190 incidents and to develop accurate estimated restoration times for customers who are still without power. MGE has not seen damage this significant for more than 30 years, and the number of separate outage incidents is extremely rare in our territory.
 
Crews have been able to make significant progress, bringing the total number of customers restored to more than 23,500—or approximately 95%— of customers who were impacted.
 
MGE and mutual assistance crews continue to replace broken poles and address unresolved incidents, many of which require extensive restoration work but impact few customers, making for a more significant restoration effort than we have experienced in recent years. Severe weather in the forecast could impact restoration efforts later today and result in new outages.
 
Since the start of this event, we have brought in significant numbers of additional crews from other utilities and contractors to assist. In addition to MGE personnel, we have approximately 100 outside personnel through mutual assistance and contractors working to restore power and trim trees impacted by the storm.
 
Extensive restoration effort
We continue to target the outages impacting the largest number of customers first, and we continue to add crews from other utilities as they become available, in addition to dispatching all available MGE crews. Due to progress in resolving incidents impacting larger numbers of customers, crews have started to work on incidents impacting smaller pockets of customers.
 
We are thankful for our crews, mutual assistance crews and operations employees who have safely worked approximately 5,000 hours in the first 36 hours to restore service to our customers as quickly as possible.
 
We encourage customers to check our outage map and outage information page for updates as restoration work continues. We also are thankful to our community for their continued patience in an extraordinary situation. We understand many of our customers are not used to extended power outages with our record of reliability.
 
Why is restoration taking so long?
This is the largest number of individual outage incidents MGE has experienced at one time. Each incident represents a location with varying complexity to restore service. The biggest challenges with this event have been the high volume of downed lines, the large number of separate outage incidents and new outages resulting from weakened trees and branches falling on power lines.
 
Why doesn’t MGE have estimated restoration times on its outage map?
Due to the number of separate incidents and the varying circumstances that impact each restoration, MGE is still unable to give accurate individual estimated restoration times and has temporarily suspended its estimated time of restoration feature on its outage map at mge.com/outage. We understand this may cause frustration for our customers and we hope to be able to provide estimated times on our outage map later today. MGE will provide another update on our service restoration efforts this afternoon.
 
My electric service is underground, why did my power go out?
The storms caused broken poles and downed wires. It is possible that lines and other electric facilities that bring power to your home were damaged, causing an outage.
 
Learn more about our restoration process below.
 
Downed lines
Public safety is our first priority. We are responding as quickly and safely as possible. We remind everyone to stay clear of damaged areas and never approach a downed power line or anything that comes in contact with it. Always assume a power line is energized and extremely dangerous and stay away. If you see a downed line, please notify MGE immediately by calling (608) 252-7111. Visit our safety page to learn more.
 
Report an outage
Customers who have not yet reported a loss of power should call MGE at (608) 252-7111 to report an outage or any incidents of downed wires.
 
Service Restoration  
All outage restoration follows a five-step process. In small incidents, these steps are often done by a single crew and can be accomplished very quickly. In major outages, however, several parts of the company become involved. Learn more about our process.
 
Sometimes you may notice an MGE vehicle or employee/crew in your neighborhood for a while without your service being restored. Here are some of the reasons:

• They are doing damage assessment and reporting the situation back to our dispatch center. They may even leave your neighborhood before service is restored.
• They are monitoring a downed line until a crew can come and make the situation safe.
• They are waiting for the electrical system to be switched so they can work on it.
• They are waiting for additional equipment or materials to complete the job.

 
If you have damage to electric lines  
Check our storm and outage FAQ page. If you have damage to the electric lines coming into your home, this page includes a graphic showing what equipment MGE owns and what equipment you own. Customers with damage to their equipment will need to have an electrician make repairs first, then contact us to have our personnel return to restore service.  

An update from the City:

Urban Forestry crews continue responding to damage caused by the severe storm of June 13, 2022.

Today, Urban Forestry crews will be focusing on clearing the remaining reported street and roadway blockages. Crews will also remove terrace trees that were reported or otherwise identified as being severely damaged and no longer safe to remain standing.

After these calls are completed, crews will then be able to turn their focus to clearing blocked sidewalks and overhead concerns from broken branches dangling from trees.

Urban Forestry also continues to receive new calls of previously unreported damaged and will respond to them as soon as possible.  Since the storm began, reports regarding 419 trees have been received, and that number continues to grow as more calls are received.

Significant damage has occurred throughout all of Madison and it will be several days yet until all of the damage is removed from city trees.

As of 3:00pm on June 14, 119.72 tons of brush created by damage from the storm was hauled to the brush processing facility to be mulched. With several days of clean-up ahead of crews, this number will grow.

The Streets and Urban Forestry Division would also like to thank all Madison residents for their kindness and continued patience as crews continue clearing damage form the storm.

Additional Information:

More information about Urban Forestry operations, including more information about storm damage in general, can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/Forestry.

More information about brush collection operations can be found at www.cityofmadison.com/BrushCollection

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, etc., feel free to reach out: district19@cityofmadison.com

-Keith F