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Outage Information

Power Outage FAQs

What should I do when my power goes off?

If your power goes out, CMEC suggests you do the following:

  1. Check the fuses or breakers in your service panels. The breakers should be in the “ON” position.
  2. If you have a main breaker below your meter socket, check to see if the breaker is in the “OFF” position. If so, check all of your wiring from the main breaker & if all wiring appears to be okay, reset the breaker to the “ON” position.
  3. Check with your neighbors to see if they have power or view our outage map below. 
  4. If your power is still not restored after the above checks, report your outage to CMEC.

To report an emergency or power outage:

  1. If you need to report an emergency, please call 911. All first responding departments in our service territory have CMEC’s information to contact us in case of any emergency. 
  2. If you need to report a power outage:
    1. Call our office at 217-235-0341 or toll-free at 888-661-2632. Be prepared to give the representative your name, account number and service location of the outage.
    2. Report outages online through your Smarthub account. Click here to access the Smarthub login page.

 

DO NOT report power outages via email or social media. These lines of communication are not monitored 24 hours a day.

If you know the cause of an outage, please call our office with a description of the issue and location. Informing CMEC of the nature of the outage will save our time looking for the issue and the time it takes to restore the outage for our members. 

Many factors affect the timeliness of restoration of power, some of which are out of our control. CMEC cannot give time estimates for power restoration. Be assured, our personnel will work as quickly and as safely as possible. If it’s a major outage, we’ll request help from our statewide association of electric cooperatives to request the necessary additional personnel and equipment to get the power restored.

CMEC personnel are required to patrol or examine the line from the point of the outage to the end of the line. Often, the problem is not specifically located at your residence or business. If it seems at times that personnel are stationary, they could be waiting for additional personnel and/or materials to arrive in order to correct the problem and restore service.

Your service may actually be fed from a different circuit, your transformer may be damaged or an individual fuse may be blown. Sometimes, it’s not our lines, and a service line to your home could be damaged and need to be repaired by a licensed electrician first. Your neighbor may also have a backup generator powering their home.

If you have medical equipment at your service location, we would like to know. These accounts will be highlighted in our record keeping and we will attempt to give priority whenever reasonably possible during an outage. This designation does not guarantee service will not be interrupted and medical necessity accounts should always have an alternate plan in place for when the power goes out. 

If you use a generator, whether portable or permanent installation, during an outage, please make sure it is connected safely. CMEC documents members who use generators during outages for the safety of our personnel working to restore service. If you use a generator, no matter the type, please take the time to fill out the information to report the location for our records. 

Outage Map

The below outage map frequently refreshes to give you information on real-time outages. The map offers boundaries based on zip code, county, and substation to help members understand where the outages are occurring.

view map larger

Know what to do when you see a downed power line:

Power lines can come down for a few reasons: severe weather or damage due to a car accident are two of the more common ones. When lines do go down there are precautions you need to take to stay safe:

  • Call 9-1-1 to report fallen or downed power lines.
  • Know that power lines do not have to be arcing or sparking to be live.
  • Stay as far away from the line as possible & don’t go near it. 
  • If the line is down because a vehicle has struck it, remain In the vehicle until emergency crews say it is safe to exit.
  • If there is a fire or you smell gasoline, hop out without touching the vehicle at the same time and DO NOT WALK, but hop away to safety.

 

Always treat a downed power line as live and never touch any wire that is down.

Learn more at: SafeElectricity.org

Illustration of a blue sedan crashed into a utility pole. A downed power line sparks on the car's crumpled hood.