Contact: Public Relations, 703-335=0500, pknight@novec.com
NORTHERN VIRGINIA, Jan. 29, 2011 – The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative continues to restore electricity to customers who lost power during the powerful snowstorm on Wednesday, Jan. 26. At 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 29, 458 customers were without power – down from 35,733 at the height of the storm. Of NOVEC’s 145,000 customers, 99.7 percent have power.
NOVEC estimates that most customers waiting for service will be back online by Saturday night, but cautions that customers who live in areas with extension tree damage may not be reconnected until Sunday.
“This ‘perfect’ storm – with sleet, ice, wind, heavy snow and even thunder – knocked out power throughout the region,” says Mike Curtis, vice president of public relations. “This kind of storm is every electric utility’s worst nightmare. But, we’re on the home stretch. We understand the challenges our customers have during an extended outage. Our crews have worked non-stop around the clock to restore service. We have terrific customer-owners and we appreciate their understanding and patience. Many of them have sent e-mails or called to thank the crews who’ve worked long and hard since the storm began.”
Larry Shaffer, manager of NOVEC’s System Operations Center, explains that NOVEC still has outages at nearly 130 specific locations, each with small clusters of customers. He says many of the last outages are requiring extra manpower, time and effort.
“In some parts of our territory, such as Clifton and Fairfax Station, lots of trees are on the lines,” Shaffer explains. “Restoring power is an extra challenge in these wooded, rural areas. Damage assessment patrols begin in advance of repair crews to maximize efficiency as much as possible. They identify areas of extensive tree damage and tree-clearing crews are put to work clearing the right of ways so crews can rebuild the lines. We assign smaller complement crews to handle switching where large numbers of customers can be restored quickly and where repairs don’t require extensive tree clearing or pole setting. If a utility pole is broken or damaged, we have to bring in a construction crew to replace it and reconnect the wires, transformers, and other facilities. Dealing with chainsaws and electricity is always dangerous, but more so when there’s snow, tangled tree limbs, and broken wires.”
Shaffer says, “We’re almost there. We won’t stop until everyone is back online.”
