Blue Ridge Electric Restoring Power Wednesday
(5 P.M. Update)
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, Phone: (828) 758-2383; Pager: 1-800-471-1323; E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (March 21, 2001) – Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation continues to work to restore power to members in Ashe and Watauga counties who are without power today due to heavy snow causing downed power lines.
At 5 p.m. today, 2,000 members remained without power in Watauga County while 3,000 members were still without power in Ashe County. At the height of the outage situation, nearly 8,000 members were affected. Crews are continuing restoration efforts this evening.
A total of 32 crews are working to restore power as quickly as possible, with assistance to Blue Ridge linemen crews coming from neighboring cooperatives Rutherford EMC and Energy United as well as contractor Pike Electric.
Blue Ridge Electric reminds the public to stay clear of downed power lines, which may still be energized and dangerous or even deadly. Anyone who sees a downed power line should immediately report it to the cooperative and try to keep others away from the downed line.
To report an outage or a downed line, members may call the cooperative’s automated phone attendant called “PowerLine”, at 1-800-448-2383. Or, they may call
their local Blue Ridge Electric office in: Watauga County: 246-8894; Caldwell County: 754-9071; Ashe County:
246-7138; and Alleghany County: 372-4646, and in Wilkes: 838-4655.
How Power is Restored
When the lights go out, Blue Ridge Electric’s main objective is to safely and quickly restore power to the greatest number of members in the shortest amount of time. The cooperative plans ahead for reliable power through right-of-way clearing, inspection of lines, and upgrading the electric system so that power is restored as quickly as possible when an outage occurs.
During an outage, crews first give attention to lines that serve emergency centers. Then crews focus on the following:
1) Transmission lines—which supply power to one or more substations. Thousands of people could be affected by damage here, so transmission lines are repaired first.
2) Substations—transmission lines feed power to substations, which are checked next during a major outage. Blue Ridge has numerous substations serving several thousand members from each point.
3) Main distribution lines (or feeders)—These are checked next if no problem is found at either the transmission line or the substation serving an area.
4) Tap lines—carry power from the feeders to the utility poles or underground transformers outside houses or other buildings.
5) Individual service—sometimes, damage occurs on the service line between a house and the transformer on the nearby pole. This is why one home may not have power while a neighboring home’s power is on.
For more information, visit the Blue Ridge Electric web site at www.BlueRidgeEMC.com.
