HURRICANE SANDY - Electric Division - System Restoration

As originally posted via the Town of Wallingford website

Wallingford Electric Division (WED)

Press Release 8:00 AM October 30, 2012

Hurricane Sandy - Wallingford Electric Division (WED) System Restoration

The WED’s line restoration forces, along with crews from the WED’s overhead line contractor and tree contractor, continue work to restore power to our customers. Our efforts today are focused on repairing damage to the WED’s distribution lines in order to provide power to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible. Once the WED system backbone is fully functional our forces will address the reconnection of individual customer services. Safety remains our primary concern and we will continue to address any hazardous conditions.

We estimate that at the peak of the storm damage last night approximately 3,200, or 13% of the WED’s customers were without power. As of this morning approximately 1,270, or 5% of our customers are without service. We expect that by 5:00 this afternoon we will have reduced the number of customers without service to approximately 400. Weather permitting we are estimating that power will be restored to all customers by midnight tomorrow, October 31. Due to the variety of problems that may affect individual customers’ service wires we are unable to provide a precise time at this point for restoration of service to a given customer.

At this point in the restoration process it is important that all customers who are without power determine whether there is damage to the service connection to their home or business. If any customer-owned facilities are damaged these facilities must be repaired by a licensed electrician before the WED can safely restore power. WED crews can only work on WED equipment. Customers who have questions regarding which components of their electrical service are their responsibility should contact the WED Customer Service Group at (203) 265-5055 or (203) 294-2020. Also, please see the STORM OUTAGES page on the Town’s website at www.wallingfordelectric.com for details regarding overhead facilities responsibilities and for other storm restoration information.

As our crews work to repair services to customers’ homes and businesses they will be addressing a number of cases where service lines are down, but the customers still have power. Our personnel will evaluate the condition of these services and in cases where the customers’ facilities are intact they will re-attach the service wires and customers will not experience an interruption. However, in cases where the customers’ facilities are damaged our crews will disconnect service and will re-connect service only after the customers’ facilities are repaired.

We also ask our customers who have emergency generators to use these devices properly in order to keep our linemen safe as they work to restore power. Please do not connect your home generator directly to your home or business’s wiring. The generator should be connected through an approved cut-off switch that will automatically disconnect the home or business from the power grid when the generator is being used. This work must be done by a licensed electrician.

We thank our customers for their understanding as we work to restore power to our community.