Contact: Priscilla Knight, 703-392-1580, pknight@novec.com
NORTHERN VIRGINIA – The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative line and tree crews are working around the clock on Jan.27, 2011, to restore power to approximately 23,000 customers without power. The fast-moving snow storm on Thursday, Jan. 26, caused widespread outages in the six Northern Virginia counties NOVEC serves. At the height of the storm, 30,000 customers were without power.
Allen Barbee, NOVEC vice president of electric systems operations, says utility trucks carrying crews struggled to get through icy roads Thursday afternoon and night, along with thousands of drivers stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. With the help of VDOT moving a multitude of abandoned vehicles and treating roads, utility trucks are reaching outage destinations and restoring power. He asks customers without power to please be patient and be prepared for outages that may extend for several days.
NOVEC Operations Center Manager Larry Shaffer says, “Our first priority is to respond to all emergency situations. After that, we work to get all our substation circuits up and running. As more and more secondary roads and side streets become passable, our trucks and crews are getting to subdivisions and individual outages. It may take several days to get everyone back online. We’ve got extra crews from other co-ops and contract crews from out-of-state working with us.”
Shaffer says almost all outages are due to snow-laden trees and branches falling on power lines. “It’s amazing to see the number of trees and branches down. It looks like a tornado went through some neighborhoods.”
“NOVEC crews are working with chain saws to remove trees and branches from power lines and reconnect customers.” says Mike Curtis, vice president of public relations. “Using chain saws and restoring service is risky in good weather, but much more so when you’re up in the air working in winter-weather conditions.”
Customers without power should report outages to NOVEC at 703-335-0500, or 1-888-335-0500 and follow the prompts from the Interactive Voice Recognition system for the quickest response. The IVR system will report the outage to NOVEC’s System Operations Center immediately and crews will be assigned to the outage.
NOVEC reminds customers to only use electric generators that have been installed outside by licensed electricians for the safety of homeowners and NOVEC line technicians. The Co-op warns everyone to stay away from downed power lines and assume they are energized. For night-time light, use flashlights or lanterns. Lighted candles should be monitored at all times by adults.
