Community reports
People report a complete outage, flickering lights, partial service loss or restored power. Reports include a timestamp and an approximate geographic location.
METHODOLOGY
How PowerStatus works
PowerStatus turns moderated community reports into local outage signals. Reports are resolved geographically, checked for quality and weighted by recency to provide a clearer view of changing conditions.
PowerStatus is an independent community information service. It is not an electricity utility, emergency service or official confirmation of power availability.
FROM REPORT TO LOCAL SIGNAL
Three steps from observation to status
Quality and location checks
Reports are checked for quality, moderated where necessary and resolved to a canonical place. Duplicate, invalid or suspicious activity does not contribute in the same way as a valid report.
Local status signals
Recent valid reports may be grouped into local incidents. Status labels describe the strength and recency of community activity, not an official utility determination.
STATUS MODEL
How local status is determined
PowerStatus evaluates recent valid reports within the same geographic area. Recency, report type and corroborating local activity influence how a community signal is presented.
No recent reports
No recent valid community activity is currently shown. This does not confirm that electricity service is available everywhere in the area.
Reports detected
Recent community reports have been received in the area and are being shown as an early local signal.
Reports rising
Recent activity is increasing compared with the preceding signal window.
Outage likely
Recent, corroborating community activity supports a stronger local outage signal.
Major outage
A substantial concentration of recent community activity is being reported. This remains a community signal.
Restoration underway
Independent restoration reports indicate that service may be returning in the area.
REPORT LIFECYCLE
What happens after a report is submitted
- 01
Report received
A community member submits the observed power condition and an approximate location.
- 02
Basic validation
The submission is checked against the report fields and input requirements before processing continues.
- 03
Geographic resolution
The report is associated with a canonical location when the available geographic information supports that match.
- 04
Quality and moderation checks
Suspicious, invalid or unsuitable activity can be held back, hidden or excluded from public signals.
- 05
Incident matching or candidate status
A valid report may be matched with a local incident or help establish a candidate signal. Not every report creates a public incident.
- 06
Public status update
Aggregated local activity can update the status shown on a city, region or map view.
- 07
Decay, resolution or restoration
New reports, restoration observations and inactivity can change or resolve an incident over time.
MODERATION
Keeping public signals useful
Reports and community comments can be checked automatically and, where necessary, held for manual review. Suspicious content can be blocked, withheld or marked for review.
Spam, abuse and irrelevant content should not influence public community signals. Comments are shown only when they meet the existing publication and moderation rules.
DATA QUALITY
Structured, reviewable data
PowerStatus uses timestamps, geographic resolution and canonical locations to connect related observations. Duplicate places, merged locations and blocked locations are kept out of public geographic coverage.
Community reports remain distinct from official utility information. Corrections and publishing decisions are recorded through the platform’s review and audit workflows.
GEOGRAPHIC RESOLUTION
How reports are connected to places
Reports are matched to structured geographic data and a canonical location when the available information supports that association. City, town, place, subdivision, administrative region and country remain distinct entity types.
Alternative names and legacy paths can resolve to canonical locations. Merged locations do not create competing public pages, while region and country hubs aggregate only qualifying public locations. Searchability and indexability are separate publishing states, so a new or insufficiently supported place can remain unavailable to search engines.
Canonical places
Public links use stable location and region paths so one place does not create competing geographic pages.
FRESHNESS
Recent signals matter more
Community reports are time-dependent. Newer valid activity is more relevant to the current status than older activity, and incidents can change as new reports arrive.
New report→Corroborated activity→Local signal→Resolution or decay
Restoration reports can indicate that service is returning. Completed or inactive incidents do not remain active indefinitely. Page update times describe real content or status changes and are not renewed simply because a page was viewed.
IMPORTANT LIMITATIONS
What PowerStatus can — and cannot — tell you
PowerStatus can
- show recent community outage activity
- help identify local clusters and changing conditions
- connect city and region pages with the live map
- surface published community observations
PowerStatus cannot
- confirm electricity service at every address
- replace an official utility outage map
- provide restoration guarantees
- verify emergency safety or replace emergency services
If there is immediate danger, damaged electrical equipment, downed power lines, fire or a medical emergency, contact the appropriate local emergency service or electricity utility.
CORRECTIONS
Found an incorrect location or report?
If a location, public report or geographic page appears to contain an error, let us know. Corrections help improve canonical locations, public status information and geographic coverage.
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