System and method for surveying utility outages

An electrical detection system for reporting the presence or absence of electrical service at a customer premise serviced by an electrical distribution network, the reported service intended to be used by a monitoring system comprising a geographical database for correlating geographical locations of customer premises with geographical locations of equipment within the electrical distribution network and further comprising means responsive to the reported service and in combination with the geographical database, for identifying an electrical service failure in the distribution network, said electrical detection system comprising:

• a PSTN interface,
• an electrical outlet interface intended for interfacing the electrical distribution network at the customer premise,
• means for monitoring the outlet interface in order to determine the presence or absence of electrical service at the customer premise, and
• means for reporting the determined electrical service to the monitoring system via a PSTN suppressed power ringing connection intended to be established by the monitoring system.

A method for identifying an electrical service failure in an electrical distribution network that serves a plurality of customer premises, said method comprising:

• initiating suppressed power ringing connections from a monitoring system through a PSTN to a plurality of electrical detection subsystems at customer premises, wherein the electrical detection subsystems comprise an electrical outlet interface for interfacing the electrical distribution network,
• sending query messages from the monitoring system through the connections to the electrical detection subsystems,
• monitoring at the electrical detection subsystems, in response to a received query message, the outlet interface in order to determine the presence or absence of electrical service at the premises,
• reporting the determined service from the electrical detection subsystems over the PSTN to the monitoring system, and
• identifying at the monitoring system, in response to the reported service and in combination with the geographical database, the electrical service failure in the distribution network.