What to do if there is a blackout

Taken and translated from the Israel Electric Company (IEC) site.

Blackouts can happen from a fault in your home electrical system or from a fault in a IEC installation that supplies electricity to your home.

If you have no electricity in your building

(all or part of the neighbors) Call for service, 103.

If there is a blackout in surrounding building too

Wait 5-7 minutes in order to give the IEC a chance to solve the problem using their emergency remote control system to restore the power or to locate the fault location. If after waiting you still have no power – call 103. By that time there is a good chance that the IEC already knows about the fault and will tell you approximately how long until power is restored.

If only you have no electricity

Carefully go to you electrical panel and check to see if either your main circuit breaker or GFI “jumped” (are in the off position) . If the main breaker jumped, then you can assume that it was caused either by overloading your lines, or caused by an electrical short in one of your appliances or in the electrical system itself. In this case try unplugging major appliances (fridge, heaters, etc.), and putting the circuit breaker up again. If this did not solve the problem, call for service (103). If the GFI “jumped”, then you probably have a short to the ground either in one of your appliances or in the electrical system of your home. It this case put down all the breakers in your panel (except the main breaker) and try to put up the GFI, followed by the circuit breakers – one by one, until you find the faulty line (the one that causes the GFI to “jump” again). If you were not able to restore power, call for service (103).

(Personal Note: For a better GFI troubleshooting guide please see “When Your Ground-fault Interrupter Trips”)

For your information

The IEC will charge if they must change one of their fuses.
The IEC does not service personal electrical systems and panels. There will be a service charge should the IEC find that the fault is not is not in their system, but rather in your home (personal electrical system). Therefore if you know that the problem is in your home electrical system, you should call a reputable licensed electrician.

Recommendation

It is a good idea to label all your circuit breakers well so the you will be able recognize what circuit breaker is in control, should any problems happen in the future.
It is also a good idea to test the GFI, once every few months, by pushing the test button and confirming that it “jumps” (turns off all the power).