SWEPCO and Entergy Mississippi crews toil to restore service after weekend storm
Following a severe storm that swept through the region last Friday, SWEPCO and Entergy Mississippi crews dove into restoration work to get power back to thousands of customers, but as of Tuesday, June 20, many remained without.
According to SWEPCO, as of 2:30 a.m. approximately 168,000 customers in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas have had their power restored, while an estimated 82,000 remain without power. Crews are working a reported 16 hours per day to restore that power, but progress is slow as much of the energy delivery system needs to be rebuilt.
“This is the worst transmission impacted storm I’ve ever seen in my career, and it’s the worst one we’ve had at SWEPCO,” Brett Mattison, SWEPCO president and COO, said.
Specifically, the storm took out more than 50 transmission lines providing high-voltage power over the long distance from power plants to substations. Nearly 300 utility poles and distribution wires serving individual businesses and homes were also heavily damaged. Nearly 60 transmission and distribution substations were hit, and more than 114 transformers will need to be replaced.
So far, half of the damaged transmission lines have been restored to service. As of yesterday, approximately 70 percent of the company’s transmission system was back online and power restored to approximately 138,000 customers.
“Without the transmission up, you can’t get power to those homes and businesses, so we’ve been working diligently to get the transmission system back up,” Mattison said.
Things looked better in Mississippi. Entergy Mississippi reported that, as of 8:30 p.m. on Monday, 19,841 customers remained without power, following damage to 222 poles, 136 cross arms and 69 transformers, along with the downing of 239,000 feet of power lines. Crews there have been aided by good weather in the aftermath, allowing them to move swiftly on both damage assessment and restoration efforts.
