Eversource, National Grid update Mass. customers on power restoration - MassLive.com

Eversource, National Grid update Mass. customers on power restoration - masslive.com

Most Massachusetts Eversource customers who lost electricity during Monday’s storm should have their power restored on Tuesday, according to a company executive.

The state’s other major electricity provider, National Grid, said Tuesday morning that it expects power to be restored to all customers by 11 p.m. Thursday, but that many homes and businesses will get their electricity back before then.

Power outages across Massachusetts reached a peak of over 285,000 customers affected Monday. By Tuesday morning, over 134,000 homes and businesses were still without power, forcing many schools in Plymouth and Norfolk County to close for the day.

As of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, a little over 100,000 customers in Massachusetts were still without power, according to Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s live power outage map.

Eversource

Craig Hallstrom, Eversource’s president of regional electric operations, said during a press conference Tuesday morning that the utility company expects everyone’s electricity to be restored by Wednesday night, but that the majority of homes and businesses should have it back by Tuesday evening.

By 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, just less than 37,000 Eversource customers were still without power, according to the utility company’s live power outage map. Hallstrom said the worst outages were located in Plymouth County and in MetroWest.

Eversource’s systems received a lot of damage Monday from falling trees knocked over by the storm’s record-breaking winds, as well as from the wind itself, Hallstrom said. The utility company also had to balance restoring electricity in Massachusetts with restoring power in other New England states that were hard hit by the storm, such as Maine, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

“We had started preparing for this event on Thursday. We had crews come in over the weekend. We were on the ground ready to go Monday morning, and the winds just never let up,” he said.

Even so, Hallstrom said, crews were able to take advantage of lulls in the storm on Monday and were ultimately able to restore power to about 160,000 customers. Eversource also took advantage of new automated systems that allow the utility company to restore electricity from its control centers.

The utility company is still flying in crews from all over the country, Hallstrom said. Eversource currently has about 600 crews on the ground in Massachusetts.

National Grid

National Grid also issued an update Tuesday morning, clarifying that though it predicts that all customers will have power restored by 11 p.m. Thursday, customers can check when the utility company estimates a specific outage will be fixed on its live power outage map. The highest concentrations of National Grid outages are in Bristol, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Worcester counties, the utility company said.

“Strong wind gusts, downed trees and limbs, and flooding slowed restoration efforts until late afternoon Monday. Despite the challenging conditions, over 210,000 affected customers have been restored,” National Grid said in a press release.

According to the live power outage map, just less than 2,100 outages across Massachusetts were affecting more than 58,000 National Grid customers as of 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. The utility company said it is allocating additional crews to the hardest-hit areas, and that it has brought in crews from New York and Canada to help.

“Our crews have been working tirelessly to restore service as quickly and as safely as we can, and we’ve made a lot of progress – but there is a long way to go,” Vice President of New England Electric Operations Tim Moore said in the release. “ ... We recognize that this is a challenging time of year to lose power, as everyone is preparing for the holidays, but we’ll continue to work until every last customer is restored.”