(latest update 5:30pm)Situation
Appalachian Power continues responding to two significant ice-damage weather events, and is making preparations for another damaging weather event Sunday night through Monday.
In Virginia ice damage through the day Saturday left a peak of 42,000 customers without service, mostly in areas east of Interstate 77 and south of Interstate 81. More than 100 workers from outside the company’s service area, as well as workers who moved in from unaffected areas of Virginia, are assisting local crews with service restoration for the 21,400 customers currently without electric service.
Weather
In Virginia ice is clearing from trees, which will aid with service restoration.
Outages
In Virginia 21,400 customers are currently without electric service, down from a Saturday evening peak of 42,000. Counties most affected include Franklin, with 7,545 customers out of service; Floyd, 4,718; Henry, 3,611; Campbell, 1,326; Montgomery, 876; Pittsylvania, 742; and Patrick, 648.
Restoration Process
In all storm events Appalachian Power prioritizes restoration efforts to safely get the largest number of customers on in the shortest amount of time, and addresses restoration in these four steps:
- First, restore critical services, such as hospitals and fire departments
- Second, restore outages that affect large groups of customers
- Third, fix problems that affect smaller numbers of customers and
- Fourth, make repairs that affect individual customers.
In Virginia workers continue to assess damage and make repairs on outages that affect large numbers of customers. Crews will then shift focus to outages that affect fewer numbers of customers as large outages are restored.
In Virginia we expect to have most customers restored in the following areas by the times shown:
- Late tonight for Pulaski and Wythe counties
- Monday, 10 p.m., for Montgomery and Roanoke counties
- Tuesday, 10 p.m., for Amherst, Bedford, Campbell, Franklin and Patrickcounties
- Wednesday, 10 p.m., for Floyd and Henry counties
Appalachian Power is responding to significant ice-damage weather events, and making preparations for another damaging weather event Sunday night through Monday.
In Virginia ice damage through the day Sunday left a peak of 42,000 customers without service, mostly in areas east of Interstate 77 and south of Interstate 81. Additional resources from outside the affected areas are now assisting local crews with service restoration for the 32,000 customers currently without electric service.
In Virginia temperatures are expected to warm enough to thaw ice, which will aid with service restoration.
Outages
In Virginia 32,000 customers are currently without electric service, down from a Saturday evening peak of 42,000. Counties most affected include Franklin, with 10,290 customers out of service; Floyd, 7,074; Henry, 4,805; Montgomery, 2,264; Patrick, 1,702; and Campbell, 1,631.
Restoration Process
In all storm events Appalachian Power prioritizes restoration efforts to safely get the largest number of customers on in the shortest amount of time, and addresses restoration in these four steps:
- First, restore critical services, such as hospitals and fire departments
- Second, restore outages that affect large groups of customers
- Third, fix problems that affect smaller numbers of customers and
- Fourth, make repairs that affect individual customers.
In Virginia workers are assessing damage and making repairs on outages that affect large numbers of customers. Crews are focusing efforts on these large outages and will move to outages that affect fewer numbers of customers through the day.
Restoration Estimates
- In Virginia we are assessing damage and will be able to provide restoration estimates when the extent of damage is more clearly known.
For information on a specific outage check Appalachian Power’s Outage Map on AppalachianPower.com.
Storm Response Efforts
We are significantly increasing the resources dedicated to restoring power from these storms. On Friday, we had 926 workers dedicated to storm restoration, including company, contract and mutual assistance workers. As hundreds more arrived through the weekend, the number of workers dedicated to storm restoration efforts more than doubled and now stands at 1,973 total workers from multiple states.
In all areas ice continues to weigh down trees and as limbs break some new outages continue to occur. Driving conditions on some roads remains slippery. Crews are following COVID safety protocols and taking precautions to ensure they are working safely in the slick conditions.
