With thunderstorms in the forecast for the rest of the week, there’s no better time to remind you of a convenient way to report a power outage: outage texting. The service is free for our members, though your carrier’s messaging and data rates may apply.
This feature can be particularly beneficial during bad weather. In storms or hurricanes, it may be difficult to get a phone call to go through on your cell phone. You may have a poor signal, or your network might be overloaded with calls from other users, making it difficult for your call to connect. Getting a text message to send is usually much easier and faster.
It’s also a convenient option if your account information isn’t always handy. By taking a few minutes to link your cell phone number to your account(s), all you have to do is text us that you’re out of power, no account number or meter number necessary. Our system will recognize the phone number you’re texting from and key in the outage report accordingly.
How to sign up
Signing up for the service only takes a few minutes. This first step is making sure your cell phone number is linked to your SPEC account. If you’re not sure, log in to SmartHub to view your account information or give our office a call at 361-364-2220. Press option 4 on the main menu to speak to one of our service coordinators.
Next, you’ll need to visit our outage texting login page. You’ll have to create a password and accept the terms and conditions to get started. You’ll then be prompted to enter the cell phone number associated with your SPEC account. Once your information is verified, the system will bring up a page listing all of your accounts.
The final step is to assign a keyword to each account. For example, you might label the account for your house “Home”. If you have more than one account, pick keywords that fit each account such as, “Home” or “Workshop”.
It’s important to choose keywords you’ll remember as this is how you’ll report any outages to SPEC. By simply texting “Outage Home” SPEC will know that you have an outage at the address linked to your home account. Or by texting “Outage Workshop” we will know your workshop is out of power.