Photo Courtesy Central Virginia Electric Cooperative
As of 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 5, the 13 electric cooperatives in Virginia had restored power to approximately 71,000 member accounts, down from the peak of more than 155,000. Nine of the cooperatives reported only scattered outages remain with a few members out of power.
The largest number of outages remained in the central Piedmont area.
Additional cooperative crews from North Carolina and Tennessee have joined crews from four other states as part of the mutual-aid effort. More than 150 out-of-state lineworkers have joined hundreds of cooperative line crews and contractors. Additionally, crews from less affected areas in Virginia have joined in restoration.
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative reported 61,145 members without power from its total of 170,000 connections. The cooperative serves all or parts of 22 counties from Hanover north to Stafford and west to the Blue Ridge. Power was restored to nearly 29,000 since the peak of the storm. REC was awaiting completion of work by Dominion on one of its delivery points in Barboursville that provides power to co-ops. Dominion crews are on the scene and anticipate restoration later this evening.
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative reported 13,499 customers out of 38,307 accounts. Power was restored to more than 11,000 since the peak of the storm. CVEC serves an area from Goochland and Louisa counties west to the Blue Ridge.
Southside Electric Cooperative reported 4,225 without power out of its 55,000 accounts. The cooperative, which serves parts of 189 counties from Chesterfield west, had restored power to more than 15,500 accounts since the peak of the storm.
Northern Neck Electric Cooperative, which serves parts of Stafford and King William in addition to the Neck, reported 2,881 outages among its 19,600 accounts, and had restored power to nearly 5,200 since the peak.
At this time, cooperatives anticipate the substantial restoration of all main distribution lines by Friday evening. That does not include tap lines or lines to individual residences, so it is likely that individual outages will persist through the weekend. Upcoming inclement weather could also delay and complicate further restoration efforts, including for crews coming from out of state.
Note: the outage map at outages.vmdaec.com is also an apparent storm victim and does not have the latest information on three co-ops, though individual co-op websites are functioning properly.