Oct. 15--ANDERSON -- City residents soon will be able to more quickly report power outages via an automated phone system and learn an estimated time when their power might return.

Anderson Municipal Light & Power GIS Coordinator Jason Tuck said the city's utilities office was trying to update and maintain its phone number database for the project.

"We are collecting phone numbers in an effort to better our database of phone numbers so that we can more accurately respond to outages when people call to report them," Tuck said. "It's a database that we haven't kept up on really well in the past, and we're making a concerted effort to do that."

When residents call into the automated system, which already is partially in place, the system will identify them by the phone numbers from which they are calling. If the phone number is not in the database, the system will ask for the resident's address and ask whether he or she wants their phone number to be used for future contact.

The phone numbers are used for reverse callback to make sure customers' power has been restored after outages and to warn customers of planned outages.

"If people call in and we have their phone number, we'll be able to process them more efficiently through our automated system," Tuck said. "In a major outage, customers will be able to get more specific information through our automated system."

Tuck said the system will be fully installed in the next few months and that other communities already use it.

"We've had it in the past," he said. "With the development of cell phones and people moving around, a lot of the maintenance of that database, it just kind of fell through the cracks," he said. "We're ramping it up again. It's one of those things that has to continue to be maintained."

Starting today, city residents can call the utility office at 648-6187 or visit cityofanderson.com to update their phone numbers of record. Tuck and other city officials will be at Mounds Mall from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday and Tuesday to update numbers, and the utility office will offer magnets next week to remind customers to call 648-6484 to report a power outage.

Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.

Update your phone number

* Call 648-6187 or visit cityofanderson.com

* Visit Mounds Mall between 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday or Tuesday

* Call 648-6484 to report a power outage

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