Connecticut’s two major electric utilities said they will complete power restorations for Hurricane Sandy on Wednesday, as they prepared for more outages from the incoming snowstorm.
“We are very prepared for the upcoming nor’easter,” said Mitch Gross, spokesman for Berlin-based Connecticut Light & Power.
CL&P had 724 outages remaining from Hurricane Sandy around noon on Wednesday, and those will be finished later in the afternoon, Gross said.
New Haven-based electric utility United Illuminating had 183 outages from Hurricane Sandy at 8 a.m. Wednesday, also expecting to complete those sometime in the afternoon, said UI spokesman Michael West.
Those restoration completions don’t count customers that CL&P and UI can’t restore, such as those ratepayers who had severe home damage and still are waiting on a house inspection before the power can be turned back on.
As the Sandy work completed, the CL&P and UI crews had to return immediately to work to deal with the outages from the snow that started falling in Connecticut late Wednesday morning. As of 3 p.m., CL&P had 5,705 outages while UI had 3,877.
The one benefit of back-to-back storms is both CL&P and UI have mutual aid crews from other utilities still in their service areas to help with the new restoration efforts.
CL&P has 2,300 mutual aid workers available for the snow, and UI still had a significant portion of the 1,200 workers that were helping out with Sandy, although West couldn’t provide a specific number.
The utilities would have released the crews to return to their home states if the snow hadn’t come on Wednesday, but now they will stay until the snow outages are restored, Gross said.
“They will remain here until we know the impact of the nor’easter,” Gross said.
