Kentucky electric cooperative mutual aid crews from Kenergy and Warren RECC are helping restore power to co-ops in Virginia after what is described as “a top five worst winter storm” on Sunday knocked out power to more than 100,000 co-op consumer-members in that state.
 
Kenergy sent three two-man crews and Warren sent four two-man crews, leaving Kentucky on Monday and beginning work on Tuesday. 
 
As of yesterday, the 13 electric cooperatives in Virginia had restored power to approximately 103,000 member accounts, down from the peak of more than 155,000. 
 
“We anticipate almost all co-op customers will have power by Friday evening,” the Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives said. “Individual outages will persist through the weekend, as crews continue to cut through fallen trees and debris to locate outages. Upcoming inclement weather could also delay and complicate further restoration efforts, including for crews coming from out of state.”
 
More than 100 lineworkers from 40 cooperatives in four states joined hundreds of cooperative line crews and contractors in restoring power to affected areas. 
 
From Southside, Kenergy crews plan to transfer to Rappahannock Electric Cooperative, while Warren RECC crews are slated to help restore service at Northern Neck EC. 
 
The top priority of each local Kentucky co-op is service to its own consumer-members. Before committing resources to mutual aid requests, each co-op ensures it has ample crews available for all local needs, including routine maintenance and emergencies.
 
Because the national network of transmission and distribution infrastructure owned by electric cooperatives is built to federal standards, line crews from any co-op in America can arrive on the scene ready to provide emergency support, secure in their knowledge of the system’s engineering.