Which is the top priority of outages?

The top priority of outages is emergency (forced) outages. These outages occur unexpectedly and typically arise from unforeseen equipment failures or urgent safety concerns. The critical nature of emergency outages demands immediate attention because they can directly impact the reliability of the electrical grid and compromise system safety.

In the context of transmission operators and system reliability, emergency outages take precedence over other types of outages because they can lead to significant disturbances in power supply, potentially affecting large numbers of customers and creating unsafe conditions. Therefore, resources and personnel are mobilized quickly to repair and restore service during forced outages to minimize disruptions.

On the other hand, planned outages, whether scheduled or on-time, are typically pre-arranged and communicated ahead of time for maintenance or upgrades to the system. While these are important for long-term reliability, they do not have the same level of immediacy or criticality as emergency outages. Late outages refer to those that fall behind their scheduled time but still fall into the category of planned outages.