Our Life Support Equipment (LSE) Program helps customers who use certain electrically operated medical devices prepare for power outages. If someone in your household uses any of the equipment listed below, please let us know by calling toll-free at 1-877-434-4100 between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays, except holidays.

Speak with a Customer Service Representative about the life support equipment used in your home and any special concerns you may have.

If you're eligible, we'll provide you with the information you'll need to enroll in our LSE Program.

Our LSE Program does not guarantee uninterrupted electric service but will provide you with information on preparing for power problems.

Qualifying life support equipment

• Kidney dialysis machine
• Apnea monitor for infants
• Oxygen concentrator
• Respirator
• Ventilator
• Pressure breathing therapy
• Infusion feeding pump
• Peritoneal dialysis machine

What we provide

Once you've been enrolled, we'll send you a "Personal Emergency Action Planner" that helps organize your planning for power problems and outlines your options in the unlikely event of an extended outage.

We'll also give you a confidential telephone number — one that's not available to the general public — for access to the latest information during unplanned power outages.

Please note that, depending on weather conditions or the extent of damage to the electric system, accurate restoration times may be difficult to predict. We'll do our best to give you all available information that will help you make decisions. Still, there's always a possibility that some customers could be without power for an extended period.

We'll contact you annually to determine if your medical situation or equipment needs have changed.

Before our crews interrupt electric service in your neighborhood in order to safely perform scheduled maintenance to our system, we will make every effort to inform you about the planned outage.

During widespread storm-related outages, we also will attempt to reach you to discuss any special needs you may have.

Important reminders

• Anyone who requires the use of life support equipment should always have an alternate source of electric power on hand, such as a battery back-up system.
• Or, you may want to consider investing in a portable emergency generator. Remember, it's important to follow all safety guidelines when installing or operating a portable generator. O&R does not provide generators for customers during outages. It is your responsibility to plan for and acquire a generator, if needed.
• Have a telephone that can work during power outages. When the power goes out, cordless phones usually will not work. However, corded landline telephones should continue to operate normally. If you also have a cell phone, you should keep it fully charged.
• In major outage events, O&R posts storm repair reports on this Web site. We also give outage and repair updates to local radio stations.
• If you or a family member relies on life support equipment at home, we recommend that you contact your local emergency management office, ambulance service or police department to see if they would want to have that information for their records. That way, in the event of a power outage requiring someone in your home to be evacuated to another location, the emergency responders will have advance information about the type of medical support needed for the transfer.

Working hard to serve you better

Unavoidable power outages do happen, despite O&R's investment of tens of millions of dollars each year to strengthen and maintain its electric system.

Sudden severe storms, vehicular accident damage, tree limb contact, equipment failure or other problems can interfere with your electric service and disrupt the flow of power to individual homes or to entire communities.

O&R has emergency response plans in place and are ready at any time of year or day to begin restoring service around-the-clock, as swiftly and safely as conditions allow. It's also important for households with special concerns to be prepared for the possibility of a lengthy power outage.