SCE&G crews restore power to 100,000 overnight
October 9, 2016
SCE&G crews worked overnight restoring power to more than 100,000 customers impacted by Hurricane Matthew.
More than 290,000 outages were reported at the peak of the storm, which occurred at 2 p.m. Saturday. Hardest hit by the high winds were customers in the coastal counties of Charleston, Beaufort, Dorchester and Colleton as well as Richland County in the Midlands. SCE&G secured more than 1,000 off-system crew members to supplement the more than 2,000 SCE&G employees assisting with storm restoration efforts. Damage assessment and restoration efforts began Saturday and will continue today with more crews in the field and aerial patrols of power lines.
“Our crews worked through the night, making progress under darkness to restore power to 100,000 customers,” said Bill Turner, SCE&G’s vice president of electric operations. “While this is progress, we still have a lot of work to do. We will be working around the clock until power has been restored to each and every one of our customers.”
In the wake of a major storm or hurricane, steps in SCE&G’s restoration process include:
- Assessing and repairing damage to large towers, power lines and substations.
- Clearing obstructions and repairing primary distribution poles and power lines.
- Inspecting and repairing secondary service drops in residential neighborhoods.
More information on SCE&G’s restoration process can be found online at www.sceg.com/restore. For up-to-date outage information and to report an outage visit www.sceg.com/storm.
SCE&G urges customers to stay away from downed power lines. Storms can cause tree limbs and entire trees to break and fall, sometimes taking power lines and even meter boxes down with them. Always assume any downed power line you see is live and stay away. To report a downed line, call 1-888-333-4465.
About SCE&G
South Carolina Electric & Gas Company is a regulated public utility engaged in the generation, transmission, distribution and sale of electricity to approximately 706,000 customers in 24 counties in the central, southern and southwestern portions of South Carolina. The company also provides natural gas service to approximately 352,000 customers in 38 counties in the state.
