News
AEP: Power On By Midnight For Most
By: Tim Sharp
Posted on:
In its Saturday morning update, AEP Ohio says it has restored power to approximately 90 percent of the approximately 660,000 customers affected by the storm that moved through the state June 29 and the additional customers who lost power in subsequent storms July 4 and 5.
As of 10:00 a.m. Saturday, power had been restored to approximately 598,000 of the customers affected by these storms. Approximately 62,000 AEP Ohio customers remained without power Saturday morning.
As the hot weather continues AEP is reminding customers to continue to check on family and neighbors still without power to make sure they are safe and to call 911 in an emergency.
The majority of the customers still without power are located in the central and southeastern Ohio Columbus, Newark and Athens service areas. These areas include Athens, Fairfield, Franklin, Guernsey, Hocking, Jackson, Knox, Licking, Meigs, Muskingum, Perry and Washington counties.
Here is a list of counties still without power in Southeast Ohio and the number of outages:
Athens 5,700
Hocking 2,900
Vinton 1,500
Jackson 1,800
Gallia 400
Lawrence 230
Muskingum 6,400
Guernsey 4,400
Nobel 200
Washington, 1,200
Morgan 100
Perry 2,500
Licking 8,600
In central Ohio, approximately 8,800 remain without power in Franklin County and 9,000 in Licking County. At the peak, approximately 45 percent of AEP Ohio’s 1.4 million customers were without power.
Approximately 683 transmission poles were damaged across Ohio, including 443 wood poles that were downed between Van Wert and Ottawa in western Ohio. An additional 35 poles had to be replaced across the state.
These structures are the base support for the transmission line circuits that traverse the state. At the peak of the storms, approximately 128 transmissions circuits — primarily 69-kV and high-voltage 138-kV lines — were knocked out of service due to trees, downed lines and equipment and extensive damage to structures. Approximately 9 remain out of service.
These transmission lines feed power to substations that provide power to communities and neighborhoods. Service to approximately 306 substations was interrupted by these line outages. Tonight, service has been restored to all but three co-op stations in northwest Ohio.
AEP says as crews finish work in one area they are being shifted to help in other areas still being restored.
To date, restoration workers have replaced more than 1,020 distribution poles across the state.
This includes nearly 2,000 internal and 2,500 external outside line resources and support personnel working to repair and rebuild AEP Ohio’s damaged electric system. This includes more than 590 internal and external transmission personnel concentrating on reconstructing downed transmission facilities across the state.