RALEIGH – Progress Energy Carolinas is sending 150 line crew members, contract workers and support staff to assist Georgia Power with restoring service to its customers across Georgia, where severe storms and tornados have left about 40,000 homes without electricity.
According to a news release, Progress Energy Carolinas teams began departing Tuesday to assist Georgia Power. Crews will be based in the Atlanta area and will work in some of the hardest-hit regions of the state. They are expected to remain in the area through the end of the week. The deployment will not affect Progress Energy’s ability to respond quickly to outages on its own system.
Georgia Power spokeswoman Konswello Monroe says the heaviest concentration of outages are in the Decatur and Buckhead areas of metro Atlanta. Monroe says power may not be restored to all customers until Wednesday evening.
She says about 250,000 initially were without power.
According to the release, Progress Energy has mutual-assistance agreements with utilities in the region. The pacts help to reduce restoration times by reinforcing the on-the-ground workforce during major outages. Progress Energy’s customers have benefited from the agreements in the past after major hurricanes and ice storms, the release said.
Progress Energy crews have already assisted utilities in Kentucky, West Virginia and the Carolinas this year following storms that left hundreds of thousands without electricity.
Work and travel costs accrued while assisting other utilities are funded by the requesting utility, not by Progress Energy customers.
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