CPS ENERGY CREWS WORKING TO RESTORE POWER TO CUSTOMERS FOLLOWING SEVERE STORM AND MASSIVE OUTAGES

CPS Energy crews continue work to restore power to customers following a severe storm that moved through their service area last night. Damaging winds along with heavy rain, hail, a reported tornado and 8,800 lightning strikes impacted power to more than 197,000 customers, with 99,000 of them experiencing an outage for more than five minutes.

“Our focus at this time is the safe restoration of electricity to everyone who was affected by last night’s storm,” said Darrell Clifton, Vice President of Construction & Maintenance Services for CPS Energy. “Strong winds and heavy rainfall impacted our infrastructure and our crews’ mobility. We are working as quickly as possible while ensuring our crews remain safe. Our community can be assured that we do not stop restoration efforts. We work around the clock and will continue to do so throughout the day and into the evening.”

The following is additional information related to the storm’s impact and restoration efforts:

• As of 4:30 p.m. today, there are 119 active outages affecting 1,253 customers.
• While crews are working safely to restore customers as quickly as possible, the outages are likely to last into the late evening hours for some customers.
• Crews worked 57 wires down due to storm damage.
  • Please be safe around downed power lines, do not approach or touch them.  Keep your family and pets away from any downed lines.

Per industry practice, CPS Energy’s restoration efforts focus on restoring service to circuits impacting the greatest number of affected customers. This process allows for restoring hundreds if not thousands of customers at a time. The next step is to concentrate efforts on the smaller outages that may affect fewer or individual customers. Customers experiencing extended outages are asked to enact their personal emergency plan, if needed, to get to a location with power.

Customer are reminded to check their breakers if their neighborhood has power and they do not. For more information on power restoration watch this video.

Additionally, drivers are reminded to please be safe and slow down around working crews, per State law, to ensure everyone’s safety.