Dominion Tackling Toughest Terrain, Outages

September 27, 2003
2 p.m.

RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion Virginia Power has completed the bulk of its restoration work in Northern Virginia and expects to have power restored to all schools in its service area by Sunday night.

As of 2 p.m. Saturday, the company had restored power to 1.57 million customers. The number of power outages in Dominion's electric service area was down from 1.8 million to about 229,000. Isabel affected about 96 percent of customers in Tidewater, 95 percent in Central Virginia and 69 percent of customers in Northern Virginia.

In many instances, restoring power to even a handful of customers may now require one or two day's worth of work. Utility crews are facing continuous challenges: having to cut trees to clear roadways, hoist 400-pound transformers, and access off-road work locations that require the hand-over-hand movement of supplies. Meanwhile, all work must be done while following strict safety procedures. Among other highlights of note:

  • On Monday, Dominion's restoration workforce will swell to more than 12,000 as mutual aid crews released by utilities in Washington, D.C., and Maryland, where outages caused by Hurricane Isabel have been reduced, join the effort.
  • In Central Virginia, Dominion has recorded three incidents where private tree-cutting contractors have toppled trees into newly strung power lines, causing repeat outages for customers.
  • As of Saturday, customers still without power should be able to get individual estimated restoration dates by calling the Dominion Customer Service Center at 1-888-667-3000. Virtually all customers should be restored by Friday, Oct. 3.

Dominion remains concerned about customer safety, especially from downed power lines and improper use of generators. Residents are urged to stay at least 10 feet away from downed power lines. Schoolchildren headed back to school and school bus stops are also reminded to stay away from downed power lines.

Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a diversified and integrated energy portfolio that includes 24,000 megawatts of generation and 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves. Dominion also serves 5 million retail energy customers in nine states

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