Lost power at the dairy or plant? An emergency electrical checklist

Published October 6, 2026 · Vili Power Solutions

First five minutes: is it the utility or is it you?

The first question decides everything that follows. A utility outage means waiting, running backup power, and protecting equipment for the restart. A problem on your side means finding the fault before anything is turned back on.

• Look around. Are the neighbors, the road lights, or the next farm dark too? Check your utility's outage map or call their outage line. Xcel Energy, the municipal utilities in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Longmont, and the rural electric co-ops all post outages.
• Check the main. If only your site is out, look at the main breaker or main disconnect from the outside. A tripped main is a sign of a fault on your side. Do not reset it until you know why it tripped.
• Partial power is the dangerous one. If some lights are dim, some motors hum but will not turn, or some equipment runs while the rest is dead, you may have lost one phase of a three-phase service. Three-phase motors left running on two phases overheat quickly. Shut those motors off and call it in.
• Write down the time and what was running when the power went out. It matters for the restart and for anyone diagnosing a fault later.

Protect the equipment while it is dark

• Turn off large motors and drives that would otherwise restart on their own: vacuum pumps, compressors, conveyors, mixers, large fans. When power returns, everything starting at once can trip the main, sag the voltage, or overload a generator.
• Leave one light switched on so you know the moment power is back.
• Protect sensitive electronics. PLCs, drives, and computers can be damaged by the surges and dips that come with power being restored. Switch off what you can at its disconnect.
• Know your critical loads. On a dairy: milking vacuum, milk cooling, water, and ventilation. At a digester: mixing, heating, and gas handling. In a plant: whatever stops product from spoiling or hardening in the line. Those go first on backup power and first on the restart list.

Running a generator safely

• Only through a transfer switch. Never connect a generator to the building wiring any other way. Backfeeding through an outlet or a panel can send power out onto the utility lines and kill a lineworker, and it destroys the generator when utility power comes back.
• Confirm the transfer switch position before starting the generator, and again before the utility power returns. An automatic transfer switch should handle this itself; if it did not transfer, that is a service call.
• Add load in steps. Start the largest motor first while the generator is unloaded, then add the rest one at a time. Starting everything together is the most common way to stall or trip a generator.
• Watch fuel and run time. Know how many hours you have, and check that the exhaust is outside and away from air intakes and people.
• A PTO generator on a dairy needs the tractor at the right speed to hold frequency. Too slow and motors run hot even when the voltage looks fine.

When the power comes back

• Wait a few minutes. Utility power often blinks on and off while crews restore it. Let it settle before starting large loads.
• Transfer back to utility power following the transfer switch procedure, then shut the generator down properly.
• Restart in sequence, critical loads first, one large motor at a time.
• Check what restarted on its own and what did not. Drives may show undervoltage or phase-loss faults that need a reset. Note any fault codes before clearing them.
• Look and listen. New noise, heat, smells, or flickering after a restart are signs of damage from the outage or the surge when power came back.

When to call an electrician

Call right away if the main breaker trips again after a reset, if you have partial power or a lost phase, if the transfer switch or generator did not work, if a storm damaged the service drop, meter, or panel, or if equipment will not restart or restarts with new noise, heat, or faults. We take after-hours emergency calls from dairies, digesters, plants, and commercial buildings across Northern Colorado, including Greeley, Windsor, and Fort Collins. Contact us or call (970) 685-2068, day or night.

Before the next outage

The best time to plan for an outage is when the power is on. Write a one-page restart list for your site, test the generator under load on a schedule, and have a qualified electrician look at the transfer switch and generator sizing. Our dairy and agricultural electrical and motor control center pages cover the work involved, and the tripping motor or drive checklist helps when equipment will not come back cleanly.