Ellensburg unveils AudiFi outage notification system; staff says $16,800 covers initial rollout

Ellensburg’s City Light department presented a new outage-reporting and customer-notification system during the Oct. 4 council meeting, saying the platform will allow residents to report outages by text or phone and receive automated updates and polygon-targeted messages.

Wade Young, operations supervisor for City Light, introduced AudiFi (branded in the presentation as Outify). Justin Johnson, representing the vendor, demonstrated how residents can text a single outage number or call to report an outage; the system then maps reports, flags messages that include additional useful information (for example, "a tree fell by his house and took out a power line") and highlights those reports for crews. Crews can set an estimated time of restoration (ETR), select outage causes, adjust the affected area and send an AI-assisted message to everyone in the selected polygon.

The system does not require residents to download an app; staff said customers will save a phone number as a contact and text or call. "As residents in Ellensburg, residents don't need to download any software," Justin Johnson said in the demonstration.

Dispatch and phone routing: A representative from the 911/dispatch center said the system was developed with dispatch cooperation and will reduce non-emergency calls during major outage events by providing an automated path for outage information; staff said after-hours calls normally routed to Kitcom would be handled by existing call routing and that the outage system will take over automated answering when Kitcom is in IVR/gating mode.

Cost and rollout: Council asked whether the product is modular and what expansion to other utilities would cost. Staff said the implementation cost is $16,800 and described it as a program cost that does not materially change whether used for one utility or multiple. The initial rollout will begin with electric outages; staff said they plan to expand to water and natural gas services if the pilot is successful. The vendor and staff said contact data would be pulled from utility accounts and that outreach materials (a flyer in utility bills and public-information messaging) will direct customers how to update phone numbers.

Privacy and scope: Staff said the system will be used for emergency messaging only and will draw contact information from utility customer accounts. Questions about data retention, privacy policy and integration with existing outage-crew workflows were not expanded upon in detail during the presentation; staff said they could follow up with additional documentation.

Next steps: Staff will roll out the outage number and publicize it via utility bills and the city website. The outage map and messages are already available as a demonstration on the utilities page of the Ellensburg website, staff said.