If you or another family member depends on life support and the loss of electricity affects these life support systems, you need to have a contingency plan in place.
Caregivers of in-home critical care patients should always have an evacuation plan or a plan for how to handle extended outages in the event of a natural disaster
Since no utility can guarantee uninterrupted electric service, Kankakee Valley REMC strongly recommends that consumers with life sustaining medical equipment in their homes develop contingency plans to protect their welfare in the event of a power outage. Contingency plans could include installing a back-up power supply (such as batteries or a generator), temporarily moving to an alternate location that has electric service and/or contacting emergency medical services.
No. We cannot guarantee uninterrupted electrical service to your home or business. Events within and outside our control will prevent us from always having power at your location.
While the power is out, no electricity is being consumed, so your meter does not register any consumption for billing.
During an outage we will have crews working on lines in your area. Many of these lines are along main roads and highways. For your safety and the safety of our crews, please drive slowly and be aware of our crew vehicles.
If you see a downed power line, it is important to stay away from it at all times and contact us immediately. Please do not try to remove anything that might be tangled in power lines.
Read all instructions carefully and follow the manufacturer's recommendations.
Never run your generator indoors or in your garage. Generators should only be run in a well-ventilated area. Gasoline-powered generators produce carbon monoxide and the fumes can be deadly if there is not adequate ventilation.
Plug appliances directly into the generator using heavy duty, properly grounded extension cords.
Make sure that extension cords are not frayed or worn.
Limit the electrical load placed on the generator to no more than the recommended wattage.
Do not connect your power generator directly to your home's main fuse box or circuit panel.
Use the generator only when necessary.
Turn the generator off at night while you sleep and when you are away from home.
For the safety of anyone who may be in the proximity of your home, do not attempt to connect your generator to your home wiring.
If you have any doubts about how to properly use a portable electric generator, contact the manufacturer or a licensed electrician for assistance.
If you have a portable generator, it should not be connected to any of the utility power lines or house wiring, unless it is equipped with a properly installed double-throw switch installed by a licensed electrician. Generators that are not installed properly can feed back into our lines and may cause serious injury to anyone coming in contact with those wires.
In major outages, other neighboring utilities and contractors assist. For this reason, you may see vehicles from other companies in your area helping to restore power.
When you experience an outage, report it by calling your local customer service office. Rest assured that our outage recovery team will work as quickly as possible to restore electrical service.