Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-703-335-0500, [email protected]
MANASSAS, Va. – Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative crews have worked nonstop to restore power service to almost 19,000 customers since Winter Storm Frida arrived on Monday, Jan. 3. NOVEC’s crews -- as well as crews from other states and additional contract crews -- are working to restore service to approximately 1,500 customers on Wednesday afternoon. The Co-op estimates most of these customers will have power service restored by Thursday, but it could take until Friday for some.
Most of the outages occurred where most of the snow fell in NOVEC’s service territory – in parts of Fairfax, Prince William, Fauquier, and Stafford Counties. Snow-covered trees and branches outside of the Co-op’s right-of-way corridors fell on utility poles and power lines.
With Interstate 95 re-opened, and other highways cleared of snow and backed-up traffic, utility trucks are reaching more outage locations on Wednesday, particularly in Stafford County and southern Prince William County.
Jill Scherzer, manager of Electric System Operations, says 32 utility poles broke during the storm. “Crews must remove broken poles and install new ones. It takes several hours to replace just one pole and then re-attach utility equipment and power lines.
“We have to recognize the conditions and obstacles our lineworkers and field crews continue to experience as they strive to get the lights on for our customers,” Scherzer states. “We also have to be mindful of the snow fatigue from both our customers and workers. There have been crews working non-stop on the system with continuous coverage since the start of this event. We understand everyone wants service restored. We appreciate our customers’ patience as our crews work.”
Customers can view or report outages at novec.com/stormcenter. They can find storm and power outage information at novec.com/outageinfo.
