Cooperative customers should be prepared during the winter months for extended outages. Every year the TV stations and newspapers will carry stories of extreme ice storms which have hit various areas of our country. The results are that many of the consumers are out of power for many days. The Cooperative would suggest to its consumers that they should be prepared for outages, since the Cooperative cannot guarantee continuous service.

Some of the suggested ways to be prepared are as follows:

1. Have a backup heating source such as a wood stove, fireplace or portable heater. This would keep you warm and keep the water pipes from freezing.
2. Standby generators are used by some consumers during lengthy power outages. Be sure they are isolated from the Cooperative's lines when in use so they do not back feed onto the Cooperative system and injure someone.
3. If you have someone in your home with medical equipment, have a plan to move them to a safe place if the power is off for an extended period of time.
4. Keep an adequate supply of nonperishable food and water on hand.

Remember, during an extreme outage a number of individuals will be needing assistance at the same time. It is good to plan ahead.

Is your stand-by generator safe for our linemen?

For most of us, a backup generator can be a nice thing to have in case the power goes off. For those people who are on life-support equipment or whose business depends on a fail-safe supply of electricity, a backup generator is essential.

No utility can guarantee there will never be outages. Car accidents, wildlife, storms and equipment failure can lead to outages despite our bests efforts. If you are dependent on electricity, consider whether a generator is a good idea.

If you decide it is, whether for convenience or necessity, it's important that you look into National Electrical Code requirements for connecting generators to your house wiring.

On a permanent installation, a double-throw switch must be installed to isolate your home's electrical system from your electric co-op's wiring. Just turning off the breakers on your panel does not meet the code's requirements.

What the switch does is to switch the supplier of electricity from your co-op's lines to the generators. This is important.

If the generator comes on and the line is connected to the co-op's supply lines, voltage going out will be stepped up from 120 volts to 14,400 volts by your house transformer. This puts the line crew working to restore power at great risk.

Your co-op linemen will usually de-engergize a line or section of line before working on it. If your generator feeds back into this line they thought was safe, they could easily be killed or seriously injured -- and you would be liable.

It would be best to plug lights, appliances, water pumps, furnaces and water heaters directly into the generator rather than trying to connect the generator to the house wiring. But first make sure the generator is rated to meet these loads. Mostly likely, you will have to alternate between appliances.

Also beware of Army surplus generators or ones from foreign countries. These may not provide the voltage or cycle of U.S. residential power. Most generators will have a nameplate attached to it with the specifications.

If you are in doubt, contact a licensed electrician or your electric cooperative. You just might save someone's life.

When a major storm causes a power outage, Ozark Border works diligently to restore service. to see how we typically go about the task of restoring electric power.

        Ozark Border Electric Cooperative has a state-of-the-art automated outage reporting system that allows faster notification and response. If you should experience an outage you should:

1. check your fuses or breakers at your breaker box
2. check the breaker under the meter (if your meter is on the pole)
3. check with your neighbors to see if their power is off

  To report a power outage, calls should be directed to 573-785-4631 or 1-800-392-0567 if a long distance call is required.

Some of the things to consider about power outages are as follows:

1. The Cooperative attempts to prevent power outages by maintaining its right-of-ways and upgrading its sytem. The Consumers of the Cooperative can help reduce power outages and the cost of their electric service by cooperating with the Cooperative in cutting and trimming of trees along the power lines and providing the Cooperative access to the lines when upgrading the lines and changing poles. The maintenance that is done to the right-of-ways and power lines help reduce outages and reduce cost.
2. When reporting a power outage, always report any damage you observed or noise that you heard. Do not touch any low-hanging power lines or power lines on the ground. Do not try to remove items which are in contact with power lines.

Automated Outage Reporting System
        While it is our goal to prevent power outages, it is our responsibility to be prepared to deal with power outages as they occur. Ozark Border maintains a dispatcher on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When an after-hours outage occurs which affects a large number of consumers, the first few minutes are the most critical for our dispatchers. Consumer calls start pouring in on our 12 toll free telephone lines, line crews must be called out to work the outage, and supervisors and additional help must be called in. Our first objective in these instances is to call a crew so power can be restored. The second objective is to call for additional help so the outage calls can be answered. The third is to answer those incoming calls. For one dispatcher working alone this is a huge task.

It is important to us for all consumers experiencing an outage to call and report it to us.
        Without your calls we cannot determine the severity of the outage. Also, our consumers are very good at making us aware of damage to the lines, such as trees on lines or broken poles. This information is extremely valuable when it comes to accessing the damage and getting power back on quickly.
        The Cooperative's automated system, PhoneMaster 2000, allows consumer calls to be taken more quickly and efficiently, while allowing the dispatchers to call the necessary personnel. This system handles all after-hours incoming calls and allows the caller to either speak to a dispatcher or report the problem automatically.

Here's how the automated reporting system works if you report an outage after hours:

• After the first ring, an automated voice will say "Thank you for calling Ozark Border Electric Cooperative. If you would like to report an outage using our automated reporting system, press 1. To speak to the next available dispatcher, stay on the line and your call will be transferred." If you are aware of damage to the line we prefer that you stay on the line and report your information to the dispatcher in person.
• If you press 1 and choose to use the automated reporting system you will then hear "Please enter your 7 digit phone number." If the Cooperative has your current telephone number on file, the system will access your account automatically. Do not enter your area code.
• One of three things will happen next:
  1. A correct phone number on file for a consumer with one active account will hear "Thank you. One moment please. The phone number you entered is _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . If this is correct, push 1. To re-enter your phone number, push 2."
  2. A phone number not on file will result in "Thank you, one moment please. Phone number _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is not on file. Push 1 to re-enter your phone number if it was entered incorrectly. Push 2 to enter your account number. You may be transferred to the next available customer service representative by pressing 0."
  3. A correct phone number on file for a consumer with more than one active account will hear "Thank you, one moment please. Phone number _ _ _ _ _ _ _ has more than one account number assigned to it. Push 1 to re-enter your phone number if it was entered incorrectly. Push 2 to enter your account number. You may be transferred to the next available customer service representative by pressing 0."

Recent outages have resulted in nearly half of consumers affected using the automated system to report outages. The automated system will not replace our dispatchers. It is simply a tool intended to help us serve you better.

Tips to make outage reporting easier:

• Make sure Ozark Border Electric has your current phone number on file.
• Keep the Cooperative's toll free number close to a phone.
• Keep your Cooperative account number close to a phone.
• If you have more than one active account, know which account number serves each location.