Nova Scotia Power has safely restored power to 70,000 customers who lost power due to the major winter
storm that hit the province yesterday and continued into this morning.
Heavy, wet snow and winds gusting to more than 110 km/h in some areas of the province caused damage to the power
system, including broken poles, downed wires, and snow weighing trees onto power lines.
“Crews have made progress getting power back to our customers despite challenging conditions,” said Sean Borden, Nova Scotia Power’s Storm Lead. “Reduced visibility and high winds resulted in periods where crews had to pause restoration efforts until it was safe to continue work. Crews worked through the night to get affected customers back on as quickly as it was safe to do so.”
There are more than 700 people dedicated to storm response today, including powerline technicians, forestry crews, damage assessors, engineers, wiring inspectors, safety specialists, customer care representatives, work planners and supervisors.
Once neighbouring utilities have addressed restoration requirements in their own territory, additional crews may join Nova Scotia Power to speed up restorations.
“Beginning at dawn, crews and damage assessors will work on identifying damage that occurred overnight at individual outage locations,” said Borden. “Assessing damage allows us to update estimated restoration times and restore power efficiently for customers.”
In situations where there are multiple power outages, Nova Scotia Power restores power in phases to ensure critical services like hospitals can stay open before beginning work in other areas.
Larger outages on transmission lines and in substations are restored ahead of smaller outages to restore electricity to the greatest number of customers.
Customer safety is very important.
If you see a downed wire, please stay away and report it to us at 1-877-428-6004. If you are concerned about an immediate public or personal safety risk, please call 911.
Customers can report outages to the Outage Line at 1-877-428-6004. The latest estimated restoration times can be
accessed by calling Nova Scotia Power at 1-877-428-6004 or checking outagemap.nspower.ca.
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Source: Media Release