Blue Ridge Electric Restores Power Outage Caused by Lightning
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
West Jefferson, North Carolina (July 23, 2007) – Lightning was the cause of a power outage affecting more than 9,000 Ashe County members of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation Monday afternoon.
During a summer electrical storm that included hail, lightning struck a transmission line in Ashe County between Horse Gap and Beaver Creek communities. Blue Ridge Electric’s new 230 kV transmission line and new substation in Beaver Creek helped reduce the number of members who could potentially have been affected by the outage.
Linemen and other personnel were immediately dispatched to restore power, which went out at 2:14 p.m. and continued for some members until 4 p.m. Equipment failure in an older substation now being replaced caused the cooperative to have to reroute Ashe County’s power through Boone and bring power back on in stages so that high summer afternoon power demands didn’t overload the system.
This created an outage affecting members primarily in the Beaver Creek, Smethport and Warrensville communities.
If an outage occurs at your home or business, you can report it by calling your local Blue Ridge Electric office or the cooperative’s automated PowerLine at 1-800-448-2383.
