Public power utilities on Jan. 26 reported that they are making progress in restoring power to customers who experienced outages due to Winter Storm Fern.
Tennessee’s Nashville Electric Service reported that utility teams worked overnight to make repairs and restore power to customers after freezing rain and ice impacted the NES service territory and have since restored power to 60,000 customers.
NES and contracted crews will continue operations in rotations, and they will remain on extended 14–16 hour shifts to ensure we can continue responding to outages quickly.
NES lineworkers restore power by tackling areas affecting the largest number of customers first, it noted.
The Tennessee Valley Authority on Jan. 26 said its crews were on the ground and in the air assessing storm damage and making repairs across the region. When areas can’t be reached by land, helicopters and drones are supporting restoration efforts alongside crews working closely with local power companies.
“While the TVA power system remains stable and secure and our plants are performing well to meet rising energy demand during the extreme cold, storm damage is impacting service for customers in parts of Middle and West Tennessee and Mississippi. At this time, TVA has damage that is impacting 12 of our local power companies.”
TVA and local power company crews “are working around the clock to restore service as safely and quickly as possible despite challenging conditions. All available resources remain deployed until power is restored.”
In Texas, Austin Energy on Jan. 26 said crews remained in the field responding to outages following the weekend’s winter storm. Frigid temperatures, icy roads and limited access are impacting restoration in some areas, it said.
Looking at overall power outage numbers in the U.S., poweroutage.com noted that as of Monday morning, there were just over 789,000 customers without power.
In Louisiana, public power utility Lafayette Utilities System sent crews to assist with power restoration efforts in Jonesville, La.
