CL&P Makes Solid Progress in Restoring Customers Affected by March Nor’Easter
Service already back for more than 50,000
Berlin, Connecticut - March 15, 2010 – The nor’easter that hit the region on Saturday caused approximately 110,000 Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) customers to lose electric service. Since then, CL&P has been aggressively working around the clock, restoring electric service to more than 50,000 customers.
Even with that considerable progress, more than 54,000 customers remain without power. The majority of these outages are in the Stamford, Norwalk and Greenwich areas. With more than 1,500 trouble spots remaining to be worked to restore service, CL&P estimates that the majority of affected customers will have electric service restored within the next 36 hours and expects to have the remainder of the customers restored by Wednesday night.
There are currently 225 crews working on the restoration. This number will increase to over 250 as additional crews join the effort. In addition to CL&P crews, mutual aide assistance is being provided from utilities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ohio and Canada.
Weather forecasts call for potential rain and wind over the next 24 hours, which could adversely impact the restoration efforts.
Because this is a multi-day effort, crews are being scheduled for approximately 16-hour shifts followed by an eight-hour rest period, which helps ensure the safety of all workers. For the majority of the crews, the 16-hour shift includes all daylight hours which aides in our restoration effort. However, resources continue to be available around the clock to continue the restoration effort and respond to emergency and emerging situations.
Safety First
We are in the process of supporting state and municipal workers’ efforts to safely re-open roads. We have responded to over 500 emergency 911 calls since the storm began.
The Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) has been part of everyday life in Connecticut for more than 100 years, providing safe and reliable electric service to homes, neighborhoods and businesses. With 1.2 million customers in 149 cities and towns, CL&P is improving the environments you live in, by offering programs in energy conservation, economic development and environmental stewardship. CL&P is a Northeast Utilities company (NYSE: NU). For more information, please visit www.cl-p.com.
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