Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-888-335-0500, customerservice@novec.com
At 8:00 a.m. this morning NOVEC is reporting service restoration to more than 75 percent of the customers affected by the Friday night storms that roared through Northern Virginia. At the height of the storm 37,000 NOVEC customers lost power. The number of outages has now been reduced to less than 9,000.
Crews worked through the night and continued to make significant progress. “We started out last night with approximately 15,000 customers out and are ending the night shift with less than 9,000,” says Bob Lewis, Operations Coordinator. “There are still more than 300 outage tickets that need to be completed, so there’s still a considerable amount of work to be done on the NOVEC system. The Dominion Virginia Power system that delivers power to three of our Loudoun County substations suffered extensive damage and we don’t have an estimate yet as to when those feeds will be restored. I can assure our customers we understand the duress they are under and are doing everything we possibly can to get customers back in service as quickly and safely as possible.”
The intense Friday evening storms caused extensive damage throughout the NOVEC system – no jurisdiction was left unscathed. The primary cause of outages was trees, broken and felled by the high gusting winds. Many were healthy trees that toppled from outside the maintained utility easement. Crews have also reported numerous broken poles and cross arms. Customers still out of power should be prepared for a multi-day service restoration. Those with internet access can track restoration progress here: http://stormcenter.novec.com/index.cfm
Safety is always a top priority for our employees and customers. Downed power lines and trees touching the lines are extremely dangerous and should never be touched. Downed power lines should be immediately reported by contacting NOVEC at 703-335-0500 or toll free at 1-888-335-0500.
A county by county summary is posted below:
