Outage Alert FAQs

• You can sign up here.
• You can text “Enroll” to 272-688*
• You can log into your Alabama Power Account, click “Alerts & Communications” under your account address, then scroll down to Outage Alerts. 

As an Outage Alerts participant, you are one of the first customers to stay up-to-date on any power interruptions at your home or business via text, phone or email. Your feedback will help solve unknown problems before we launch the program to all Alabama Power customers.

Your feedback is crucial and will ensure we make necessary system updates to improve the alert system. Following your power restoration, you will be asked to complete a survey.  Simply click the link in the email or text to begin. The survey will take less than 5 minutes and will help us identify necessary improvements.

If you received a power restoration alert in error, please report your outage:

• Text “Out” to 272-688*
• Call Alabama Power’s automated phone system at 1-800-888-2726.
• Report an outage online.

You will not receive an alert the moment your power goes out. The system is designed to send alerts approximately 10 minutes following a confirmed outage.

If you receive an alert and your power is not out, please let us know by responding to your post-restoration survey. We monitor your responses and will be able to investigate the issue.

Yes, there are several ways to request the status of an outage:

• Text “Status” to 272-688*
• Call Alabama Power’s automated phone system at 1-800-888–2726.
• Check the status of an outage online.

There are multiple layers to restoring power in either a widespread or isolated outage. Here is a snapshot of the steps we take that play a part in your restoration time:

• Ensure our customers and employees are safe.
• If an outage is reported and it is storming or a storm is approaching, for employee safety, line crews must wait until the storm subsides to start repairs.
• Assess damage to determine the quickest and most effective way to restore service.
• Engineers and other professionals in Power Delivery use their training and experience to map out a plan to restore power in the most efficient way.
• Downed trees must be removed for our trucks to get through an area and new power poles to be installed.
• A broken pole requires that we dig a hole for the new pole. Before digging, we ensure there are no underground utilities, such as water and gas pipes.
• Special tools are needed to splice broken wires together.
• Several factors play a role in determining when power is restored, and some factors are unknown until we get to the area of the outage.

If it is an isolated issue, most of the time we restore within the projected time frame. However, outages are based on the situation, so even the smallest outage can extend the projected time, depending on unexpected issues that come up while planning or making the repair.

There are several ways to report an outage:

• Text “out” to APCOUT (272688*).
• Check status by texting “status” to APCOUT (272688*)
• Sign up for outage alerts.
• Report an outage online.
• Check the status of an outage online.
• Report an outage or check status by calling 1-800-888–2726.
• Download our app.

There are several factors that affect how and when we can get the power turned back on. The circumstance that caused the outage, such as a downed line, tree limb, broken pole or unforeseen obstacles found once we arrive to the location, all play a vital role in restoration efforts. To learn more about power restoration, visit alabamapower.com.

Following a severe storm with widespread power interruptions, you should wait a reasonable amount of time before calling to report an outage. Chances are we already know and are working on it. You may check the outage status online, enroll to receive outage alerts or contact us.

Some outages are unrelated to weather. Outages, blinking lights, dimming lights and other power issues can be the result of a tree limb on a power line, squirrels or other animals interfering with equipment, construction damage to a line, a vehicle hitting a pole, and other unrelated weather issues.