While we're always working to provide you with the safe, reliable electricity you depend on each day, power outages can happen – especially when severe weather strikes. When the power does go out, we know you rely on timely information to help manage through.

Our 24/7 Power Center outage maps are one of many tools our customers can use to stay informed during a power outage. The maps provide important outage information, including the cause of an outage, number of affected customers, crew status and estimated restoration time, and are updated every 15 minutes.

We're pleased to share some newly implemented enhancements designed to make it easier for you to locate key information about your outage. The new features include:

• View by Location: Color-coded icons show the number of customers impacted by an outage and polygon shapes will be drawn around an entire area where an outage impacts three or more locations.
• View by Area: Outages have color-coded shading at the county or municipality level when zoomed in.
• State Map Navigation: A navigation bar at the top of the outage map lets you toggle between maps for each state in FirstEnergy's footprint, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey.
• Enroll in Text Messages: You can now enroll in text messaging directly from the map to stay up to date on the status of your outage.
• Summary Report: View outages by county or municipality, with the added ability to search and sort results.
• Weather Radar Overlay: Toggle on/off and adjust the opacity of a real-time weather radar overlay on the map to see how the weather may be impacting your current outage status.
• Service Address Search: Improved address search functionality allows you to locate and save several addresses to quickly view outage details and restoration updates for the locations most important to you.

Additionally, you can continue to view the maps on both desktop and mobile devices, which we know is especially important during a power outage when a mobile device helps you stay connected. To learn more about the upgrades and key features of the outage map, visit the 24/7 Power Center Map Help.

New Text Messaging Options

Another great option for staying informed during a power outage is enrolling in our alert service, which will automatically notify you via text message or email when the status has changed for your reported outage. You can also sign up for text messaging to request updates for a reported power outage using the texting service on your mobile device. When you do, we'll reply with the cause of the outage, number of affected customers, crew status and estimated restoration time.

In addition to the updated outage map, our text messaging options have been enhanced to make it easier to request outage status updates or make changes to a request. These features include:

• Natural Language Text: You can now request outage updates by text using conversational phrases like "My power is out" or "When will my power be on?"
• Additional Keywords: Several new keywords have been added to improve customers' experience with outage communications text alerts. For example, customers will now be able to text CANCEL to cancel a request and reset the two-way conversation.

If you're not enrolled in outage alerts or our text messaging service, learn more and register.

Expanded Crew Status Updates

The descriptions for crew status have been updated for both the outage map and text alerts to provide additional details about the current stage of the restoration process.

The new crew status updates include:

• Preparing for Crew Assessment: We're aware of the outage and crews will be assigned as soon as possible.
• Preparing for Dispatch: Will be displayed when specific crews are assigned and dispatched, and while crews are being given outage event information.
• Dispatched: This status will indicate that a crew is on its way to assess the cause of the outage.
• Arrived: A crew has arrived onsite to investigate the cause of the outage.
• Additional Crews Requested: Additional resources or a specialty crew is needed to safely restore power and they will be dispatched as soon as possible.

Get Connected

Now is a great time to sign up for text alerts and text messaging so that you can stay connected should a power outage occur. Be sure to visit your state's updated outage map to check out the new features and set up your address bookmarks.

For tips to prepare for severe weather and to learn about FirstEnergy's storm preparation and restoration process, visit firstenergycorp.com/outages. You can also follow us on social media for important safety reminders and tips to prepare your family for outages.