Appalachian Power restores 105,000 customers after storm

An assessment crew climbs a steep hill to locate power line damage near Charleston, W.Va.

CHARLESTON — Appalachian Power crews have restored electric service to more than 105,000 customers as of Thursday morning after Monday’s storm.

Estimated restoration times have now been established in all areas (please go to www.appalachianpower.com or Appalachian Power’s Facebook page for specific areas’ restoration times). Appalachian Power anticipates 90 percent of customers will be restored by its estimated times, but there will inevitably be lingering outages where damage is most severe. Estimated times could change depending on further assessment of electrical facilities and ongoing inclement weather in some areas.

Improving weather late this week should allow crews to begin flying helicopters over transmission lines to more thoroughly assess damage. Helicopters will also be used to transfer poles to remote, mountainous areas. Additionally, crews are finding additional damage such as broken poles and more downed lines, especially in rural areas.

There are more than 1,600 company and contract line mechanics, 300 damage assessors and 850 tree trimmers dedicated to service restoration working throughout the service area.

Storm restoration snapshot

As of Thursday morning, more than 70,000 customers in West Virginia and an additional 7,000 customers in Virginia are without electric service as a result of the storm.

While progress is going well, there are more than 2,300 individual outage/trouble cases that need addressed by crews.

More than 50 distribution substations were taken out by the storm and 14 remain out of service. The majority of these stations are expected to be restored today.

More than 110 circuit breakers were taken out of service due to the storm and all but about 33 have been restored.

Approximately 55 transmission lines were affected by storm and 30 remain out of service.

Outages peaked around noon on Tuesday at more than 182,000 customers.

A total of 372 AEP employees and 324 contract workers are currently assisting Appalachian Power. AEP employees working for Appalachian Power number 55 from AEP Texas; 89 from AEP Ohio, 68 from Indiana Michigan Power; 60 from Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and 100 from Southwestern Electric Power Company. The crews include distribution line crews, transmission crews, and tree trimmers.

In addition to those assisting Appalachian Power, 11 Underground Network employees and 140 contract tree trimmers from AEP Ohio were released to assist Con Ed in New York. AEP currently has a total of 226 company and contract line workers and 376 tree trimming contract workers assisting non-AEP utilities to restore power following Superstorm Sandy.