September 21, 2003
7:00 p.m.

RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion has turned the lights back on for more than half of the 1.8 million customers left in the dark by Hurricane Isabel, the most destructive storm in the company’s 100-year history.

As of 7 p.m. Sunday, Dominion line crews, contractors and crews from 11 assisting utilities have restored service to more than 972,000 customers in northeastern North Carolina and Virginia. About 900,000 remain without power.

Based on continuing damage assessments, Dominion announced the following estimated restoration schedule that will be updated on a regular basis:

*Dominion serves 2.2 million electric franchise customers; 1.8 million were affected by Isabel.

All hospitals that lost power because of the hurricane have been restored. Crews restored power to 30 primary water-pumping stations in the 30,000-square mile service area. The company is continuing to work with municipalities to identify other public infrastructure – such as schools – which need power.

Dominion Sunday continued to add to its assembled workforce. What was an army of 7,000 line crews, tree trimmers and support on Wednesday, the day before the storm, is now 9,700 strong. The crews are focusing on restoring service to the remaining transmission and primary distribution circuits that were damaged by Hurricane Isabel, mostly by uprooted trees or blown limbs.

“The task remains Herculean, but in less than three days we’ve restored power to more than half of the customers who had their lights turned out by Isabel,” said Jimmy D. Staton, senior vice president-Operations. “That’s more restored customers than affected by our last two major events, the Super Bowl freezing rain storm in 2000 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience. We know they want their lights on and we sincerely want to make that happen, but the damage to our system is unprecedented.”

The widespread damage included:

• 62 of the company’s 380 transmission lines – 1,600 miles of high-voltage power lines. Crews restored 41 of them by Sunday, with the last 21 lines due back in service early this week. Transmission service to those substations that supply power to electric cooperatives was expected to be restored fully by Sunday.
• About 1,150 of the company’s 1,600 primary distribution circuits – 72 percent. These power lines deliver electricity to lower voltage circuits that go to homes and businesses. Primary circuits are the first circuits restored after storms. Primary circuits must be repaired, inspected and reconnected to the grid before homes and businesses can be served.
• 2,311 broken utility poles.
• 3,899 snapped crossarms.
• 7,363 spans of downed power lines.

Dominion’s customer service centers in Norfolk, Richmond and Akron, Ohio, answered about 810,000 calls from customers since Hurricane Isabel arrived Thursday. Most of the calls were handled by the company’s computerized voice response unit, which is the quickest way to report an outage. The company is also using this system to call customers back with information about service restoration. The company also has about 500 operators taking calls.

Dominion remains concerned about customer safety, especially from downed power lines and improper use of generators. Company officials note that unless installed professionally, generators should not be connected to the whole house electrical service. Improperly installed, the electricity could backfeed onto Dominion’s power lines and injure line crews. Report downed power lines by calling 1-888-667-3000.

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. For more information about Dominion, including dynamic updates on power restoration, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

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