Blue Ridge Electric Members Urged to Report Outages
Members: Call 1-800-448-2383
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Public Relations, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
LENOIR, NC, Feb. 28, 2005 (11:00 a.m.) – Linemen for Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation are working across the cooperative’s service territory to restore outages across the system today.
Currently, approximately 3,200 members are without power. Of those, 1,200 members are in Caldwell County, 1,000 in Ashe County and 1,000 in Watauga County. Wilkes County also has limited outages as a result of the weather.
Weather conditions last night resulted in heavy snow accumulating on power lines. With temperatures warming during morning hours, the snow is falling off the power lines but as that happens, the lines often “bounce” together and hit each other, resulting in blown fuses. Some broken poles have also been reported across the system.
During mid-morning, as many as 54,000 members were briefly without power when the transmission system supplying power to Alleghany, Ashe and Watauga counties temporarily went down. Members were without power for 10 to 15 minutes until electricity could be re-routed to restore members with power. Blue Ridge Electric officials are working with Duke Power and linemen are patrolling the electric plant system by foot to determine the cause.
Blue Ridge Electric recently installed new technology that allows dispatchers to more quickly identify outage locations and potential causes, resulting in linemen being able to restore the power more quickly for members.
Members should still call Blue Ridge Electric to report outages. A new option is also available when members call the cooperative’s district office telephone system that will allow them to more quickly report outages.
The fastest way to report an outage is by calling Blue Ridge Electric’s Powerline, at 1-800-448-2383.
They can also call Blue Ridge Electric in Caldwell County at: 754-9071; in Watauga County at: 264-8894; in Ashe County at: 246-7138; in Alleghany County at: 372-4646; and in Wilkes County at: 838-4655.
Blue Ridge Electric is a member-owned electric cooperative serving some 68,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Avery and Alexander counties.
