Columbus Light & Water is committed to providing electricity at any time of the day or night you need it. But sometimes, and often beyond our control, problems occur and cause outages, whether the problem is weather-related or equipment-related. As soon as possible, call CL&W’s new PORCHE line (for Primary Outage Response Call Handling Equipment), at 243-7440 to report the outage.

The new PORCHE system will minimize the frustration of hearing on-going busy signals; it will increase customer service by taking up to ten times the number of calls, and it will reduce outage time by getting your information faster and allowing CL&W employeesto be more efficient. The phone number 243-7440 is a special number assigned for emergencies. When you report an outage, the call is recorded and documented for reference with the touch of a few buttons on your phone. Once you’ve entered your number, as instructed, the computer database that contains the line and pole location is accessed, and accessed, and a crew is dispatched.

The dispatcher on duty then records a message that explains the status of the outage for other callers. Customers who call from rotary phones may leave a message or remain on the line for the dispatcher to answer, though it may not be immediate. To help us serve you better, there are a few things you can do. PORCHE works best and more efficiently if the information we have is correct, and it is essential that the phone number on your account is the one permanently installed at the location of the electric service. To be sure we have you correct number, please write your phone number on your next electric bill before sending it to us, and then keep 243-7440 handy should an outage occur.