Instruction:
Why do home power outages occur?

Response:
Power outages can occur for a number of reasons. First, some perceived "outages" may actually be caused by overloading a circuit breaker in a home. To eliminate this as a possibility and confirm the issue is not localized to your home, check to make sure that all circuits in your electric panel are still on. 

If you are experiencing a power outage, it may been caused by a few different reasons:
- Power safety shutoff: in some situations, a power provider will de-electrify an area to prevent issues. This might be due to maintenance activities with employees working on a section of the power grid, or to prevent issues in inclimate weather, such as preventing wildfire ignition in high-wind events. 
- Weather-caused issues: high wind or ice-storms can sometimes snap power lines or cause tree limbs to fall. 

Check with your utility provider to stay up to date on any outage you are experiencing. Most utilities provide SMS/text updates, which will keep you updated in case you lose access to the internet (as your home router requires power too!)