NOVEC crews restore power after powerful thunderstorm

April 07, 2017

Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-888-335-0500, communications@novec.com

MANASSAS, Va. — Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative crews are going into their second day of restoring service to customers who lost power during the powerful thunderstorm on Thursday, April 6.

“The storm blew trees and branches on powerlines and broke utility poles,” explains Jill Scherzer, NOVEC System Operations manager. “More than 10,000 customers lost power at the height of the storm Thursday afternoon. As of 10:15 a.m. on Friday, we’ve restored service to all but approximately 400. Many of the outages crews are working on affect just one customer, but it often takes just as much time for a crew to restore service to one customer as it does to thousands.”

Steve Hash, System Operations supervisor, urges any NOVEC customer without power to report it to 703-335-0500 or toll free 1-888-335-0500.

“Please don’t report an outage on social media,” Hash says. “Call us directly. Our phone system sends outage messages to us immediately. The sooner a customer reports an outage, the sooner we can send a crew to the outage location.”

Customers can follow power-outage status at www.novec.com.

What to Do If Power Goes Out

  • Report the outage by: calling l 703-335-0500 or 1-888-335-0500; reporting it at www.novec.com; or using NOVEC’s smartphone app to send a text message. To sign up for text messaging, customers can text the keyword NOVECOUT to 85700 or log onto their accounts on NOVEC’s website.
  • Open freezers and refrigerators only when necessary.
  • Open exterior doors only when necessary.
  • Only run portable generators, camp stoves, or grills outdoors to avoid carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Find more important guidelines at www.novec.com/outageinfo.

About NOVEC

NOVEC is a not-for-profit electric utility corporation that supplies and distributes electricity and energy-related services to more than 180,000 metered customers in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, and Clarke counties, the Town of Clifton, and the City of Manassas Park. It is Virginia’s largest electric cooperative and one of the largest electric companies of its kind in the nation. Learn more at novec.com, or call 703-335-0500. NOVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

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