Businesses and homeowners worried about how widespread a power outage might be and how long before they can expect to have service restored gained a major new tool today from Indiana Michigan Power Company. That new tool is a new, interactive map that provides substantially more detailed information about power outages than ever before.
I&M’s new outage mapping tool makes it easier for customers to search for or report a power outage at www.IndianaMichiganPower.com/OutageMap. Information about power outages is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without the need to log into a customer’s I&M account.
Tom Kratt, Vice President of Distribution Operations for I&M says, “Although we work hard to keep the lights on, we understand that our customers want to know what is happening and be able to plan next steps when a power outage does happen. Our new, interactive map tool provides a quick and easy way for customers to get information while we’re working to restore power.”
Every 15 minutes, the map refreshes to provide the most up-to-date outage information including:
- The date and time the outage was first reported.
- The estimated time when service will be restored.
- The number of customers without service due to a specific incident.
- The cause of the outage (when available).
- The total number of customers currently without service.
Built on a Google Maps platform, the mobile-friendly map allows customers to zoom in to see power outages by street or neighborhood. Outages also are searchable by street, city, zip code or county. Customers can customize using the map with street or satellite views and save them as a bookmark.
I&M customers can still receive information about their accounts and the status of any outage affecting them, including the estimated time power will be restored, via text and/or e-mail by signing up for I&M On the Go Mobile Alerts at this link: http://www.IndianaMichiganPower.com/Alerts/. Customers can also call a 24-hour customer service line at 800-311-4634.
For more information, including a tutorial video, go to www.IndianaMichiganPower.com/OutageMap. Click on the Menu in the upper left, left of the address entry box. Then click Help to see answers to frequently-asked questions and to access the video.
Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) is headquartered in Fort Wayne, and its 2,450 employees serve more than 589,000 customers. It operates 2,600 MW of coal-fired generation in Indiana, 2,160 MW of nuclear generation in Michigan and 22 MW of hydro generation in both states. The company’s generation portfolio also includes 450 MW of purchased wind generation and, by the end of 2016, approximately 15 MW of large-scale solar generation.
