Contact: Public Relations, 703-335-0500, pknight@novec.com
96 Percent of Co-op Members now have Electricity
NORTHERN VIRGINIA, Jan. 28, 2011 -- Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative crews will work all weekend until power is restored to customers who lost power during Wednesday’s snowstorm. At 6:30 p.m. on Friday night, approximately 4,500 customers were without power – down from 35,733 two days ago.
NOVEC is estimating that most of the remaining customers without electricity will be back online by Saturday night, but cautions that restoration will likely continue into Sunday.
“We know people who have been waiting for service are frustrated,” says Mike Curtis, vice president of public relations. “They are cold and concerned about their families, pets, and in some cases, farm animals. Our management team is keeping the service restoration effort going forward around the clock. They are working as quickly – and as safely – as they can.”
Dan Swingle, supervisor of NOVEC’s System Operations Center, says the last outages are frequently the most difficult to repair.
“Many of our customers live in areas where tall trees have fallen on power lines,” Swingle explains. “NOVEC has an aggressive right-of-way program and that helps minimize damage. However, many trees outside of the right-of-way areas came down Wednesday night under the weight of wet, heavy snow.”
Swingle says, “There’s still a lot of work to do, but our crews are making progress. We have 96 percent of all customers online, and we won’t stop working until all of them can flip a switch and have power.”
Outage Summary
| County | Affected | Power On | Served |
| Clarke | 0 | 100% | 32 |
| Fairfax | 912 | 96.548% | 26418 |
| Fauquier | 557 | 90.509% | 5869 |
| Loudoun | 177 | 99.262% | 23992 |
| Manassas Park | 58 | 98.897% | 5257 |
| Prince William | 1548 | 97.994% | 77168 |
| Stafford | 3 | 99.938% | 4875 |
| Total Customers | 3255 | 97.733% | 143611 |
Last Updated: 8:30:20 PM, 1/28/2011 |
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What to do if a Power Outage Occurs
- Call 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 the System Operations Center immediately and crews will be assigned to the outage.
- Stay away from downed power lines and poles and the area around them. Assume they are energized. Storm debris, such as metal fences and bicycles, can hide a downed power line, which can energize anything that comes in contact with it. Notify NOVEC immediately.
- Use flashlights or lanterns instead of candles. If you use candles, watch them and keep them away from children and flammable household furnishings.
- Open freezers and refrigerators only when necessary.
- Use a portable generator, camp stove, or charcoal grill only outdoors to prevent creating deadly carbon monoxide fumes indoors.
