Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-888-335-0500, customerservice@novec.com
More than 80 percent of the 37,000 NOVEC customers who were affected by extraordinary thunderstorms on Friday night have been restored to service. As of 11:30 a.m. today, the total number of outages on the NOVEC system is just over 7,000. Cooperative crews are teaming with contractors to continue around-the-clock work until all service is restored.
According to a July 1 story in The Washington Post, the region was struck by a “Derecho” – a “fast-moving, long-lived, large and violent thunderstorm complex.” The Friday evening storm had recorded wind gusts of 60-80 mph and has been credited with causing the most wide-spread non-hurricane related power outages in Virginia’s history.
In NOVEC’s service area, the storms toppled trees, and damaged poles and equipment in all jurisdictions. “It is a challenge to coordinate such a system-wide outage response, but our team has responded very well,” says Larry Shaffer, manager, operations. “All of the workers involved in this service restoration are highly motivated and have performed admirably. In the Operations Center, the use of proven outage management technology enables us to deploy our resources with maximum efficiency. I can’t say enough about the crews in the field. Working around power lines is always a very dangerous job - especially so in such extreme weather conditions. We understand the frustrations customers experience during an extended outage, and I can assure them that the NOVEC team will be on the job until all service is restored.”
NOVEC customers with internet access can track service 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 outage summary is posted below:
