Reporting an Outage
It is 8 p.m., you are settled into your favorite chair to watch your favorite television show and your lights blink. Then they blink again. They blink a third time and the power goes off. Five minutes pass and you’re not too concerned, 15 minutes pass and you decide to tell someone. How do you report your outage?
Call Your Service Center
Volunteer Energy’s Central Dispatch Control Center is staffed 24 hours a day. Whether it is 8 p.m. or 3 a.m., a dispatcher is monitoring real-time service on our power grid. Each of our Central Dispatch staff works hand in hand with service area managers to monitor and diagnose problems. The dispatchers utilize state of the art monitoring systems which include the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Outage Management System (OMS). In addition to the Dispatch Control Center, our Integrated Voice Response System (IVR) can confirm outages and give updated information 24 hours each day.
Along with the IVR and Central Dispatch, our Contact Center is open for extended business hours: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. EST and Saturday 8 a.m.-noon EST. “Volunteer Energy, how may I help you?” is a phrase repeated often in the Contact Center as representatives answer calls from the 17 counties served by Volunteer Energy.
Use VEC.org or the Smart Hub App
You can also report your outage by signing into your account at www.vec.org or using the Smart Hub app. Both the app and the website are connected to the OMS system and updates the dispatch center in real time.
Do Not Report Using Social Media
Do not report outages using social media. Our social media pages are not monitored 24/7 and are not connected to OMS. Your outage will not be recorded if you report using social media. During large or extended outages, social media will be used to provide progress updates.
Update Your Phone Number
Whether you report your outage via SmartHub, on the website, or by phone remember to update your phone number. Without a current phone number, VEC personnel cannot reach you to verify or provide outage-duration information.
Volunteer Energy Service Center Phone Numbers
Benton 423-338-2569, Byrdstown 931-864-3685, Cleveland 423-476-6571, Crossville 931-484-3527, Corporate 423-334-1020, Decatur 423-334-5721, Georgetown 423-344-8382, Jamestown 931-879-5853, Monterey 931-839-2217, Spring City 423-365-5220