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At Black Hills Power, we are dedicated to providing you, our customer, excellent customer service and reliable electricity. Unfortunately, sometimes circumstances beyond our control such as lightning, high winds, snow storms or equipment failure can cause an electrical outage. BHP is proud to utilize a state of outage call-handling system that we believe provides our customers excellent customer service during outage restoration. This outage call-handling system is an automated system. Although we would prefer to answer every phone call in person, it's just not possible to do so during outage situations. Power outages don't occur just during normal business hours on weekdays; they also can occur in the middle of the night, on weekends, and on holidays. In years past, if you experienced an outage during one of those night or weekend times and tried to call in to report your outage, you may have heard a busy signal or been asked to leave a message. Our outage call-handling system has several features that benefit our customers when they need to contact BHP regarding a power outage: There are two phone numbers dedicated exclusively to outage reporting. One number is for Rapid City area customers, and one number is a toll-free call for customers throughout BHP's service territory. This system is capable of handling up to 32 incoming phone calls simultaneously. This greatly reduces the number of callers who in the past have expressed frustration over "not being able to get through." For outages impacting large groups of customers, pre-recorded messages inform customers calling in that BHP is already aware of and is working on the outages in those areas. Through caller-ID technology and BHP's customer information system, incoming customer phone calls from BHP service locations are identified. This means that for the vast majority of our customers calling in to report an outage, a record is instantly generated that gives BHP dispatchers the affected customer's name, service address, time of call, and other relevant information needed to expedite restoration efforts. Since the caller ID feature provides this critical information, it is very important that we have your primary phone number listed in our records. You may use a cell phone or other number if you like. Please call our office today so that we can verify that we have the correct phone number on file for outage reporting. The system allows BHP personnel to quickly sort the outage call records by customer name, town, street, or any other criteria, to aid in analyzing the outage and directing the most efficient outage restoration effort possible. The system encourages customers to leave a message in the event they know specific outage information. These messages are indicated to BHP personnel on the outage call system for immediate follow-up. Customers with other special circumstances may leave a message to request that a BHP representative call them back to discuss the situation. When a power outage occurs, simply contact BHP at: Rapid City Area: Toll-Free Number: If you have questions about the Outage Call-Handing System, or other services provided by BHP, please contact your local Customer Service Office.
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