CMP continues push to recover from winter storm

CMP News

Central Maine Power Company, 83 Edison Drive, Augusta, ME 04336 (207) 622-NEWS 

Corporate Communications - corpcomm@cmpco.com 

 

 

Release: Immediate  

Media Contacts: Gail Rice, 207.622.NEWS, gail.rice@cmpco.com

 

 

 

 

CMP continues push to recover from winter storm

 

AUGUSTA, Maine, November 28, 2014, 9:30 a.m. " Central Maine Power Company (CMP), a subsidiary of Iberdrola USA, had more than 600 line and tree workers, plus hundreds more support personnel, working in the field and in utility offices Friday morning as power restoration efforts continued. As of 9:30 a.m., the company's crews have reduced the number outages to fewer than 25,000.

 

A Northeaster that rolled through Maine Wednesday afternoon to Thursday morning dumped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow into parts of Maine. It knocked out power to more than 157,000 homes and businesses with the peak number of outages reaching nearly 104,000 around 8:30 Thursday morning. Nearly 1,000 CMP employees and contractors worked through Thanksgiving Day restoring power to nearly 75,000 homes and business and re-establishing service along most of the company's major distribution lines that serve large concentrations of residential and commercial customers.

 

The utility expects to complete restoration in Oxford, Androscoggin, Knox, Kennebec, Hancock, and southern and western Cumberland Counties by late Friday evening. Most of the remaining customers in other areas are also expected to have service back, according to Gail Rice, spokesperson for Central Maine Power.

 

The utility is working to keep customers informed of restoration progress. Customers can find information on CMP's mobile-friendly web site at www.cmpco.com. Customers can also call CMP's automated outage line  " 1.800.696.1000 " if they want information on restoration progress in specific areas. The utility's staff is working to update recordings with the latest restoration information.

 

"By late this evening, we expect to have power back to more than 90 percent of the customers initially affected," she said. "We will still have scattered outages into Saturday, but those are expected to affect small groups of customers, especially on seasonal roads, peninsulas, islands, and other hard-to-reach locations."

 

Here is a list of outages by county:
York: 10,999
Cumberland: 5,752
Lincoln: 4,509
Sagadahoc: 2,303
Androscoggin: 569
Kennebec: 421
Knox :135
Hancock: 25
Oxford: 19
CMPTotal: 24,732

 

CMP continues to move more crews into the hardest-hit parts of York, Cumberland, Lincoln, and Sagadahoc Counties. CMP urges customers with questions about restoration progress in their location to call the utility's outage hotline at 1.80.696.1000.

 

CMP also reminds drivers to use caution when approaching utility crews. The working conditions are difficult, and the workers appreciate everyone's consideration for their safety.

 

Additional information on storm safety and restoration is on CMP's web site at www.cmpco.com.

 

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About Central Maine Power Company (CMP): Central Maine Power Company, a subsidiary of Iberdrola USA, is Maine's largest electricity transmission and distribution utility. The company delivers about 9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually to more than 600,000 homes and businesses, representing about 80% of Maine's annual consumer sales of electricity. The company has been ranked #1 in customer satisfaction six times by J.D. Power and Associates. For more information, visit www.cmpco.com/.

About Iberdrola USA: Iberdrola USA is the U.S. subsidiary of global energy leader Iberdrola, S.A. The Iberdrola USA companies employ about 5,000 people with operations in 24 states from New England to the West Coast, providing electricity generation, transmission and distribution, natural gas storage and distribution, and energy services. For more information, please visit our website: www.iberdrolausa.com. Follow us on Twitter: @IberdrolaUSA