Restoration Nearly Complete in Central N.C.; Crews Still Working in Mountains

    RALEIGH, N.C., April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- By 7 p.m. today, Progress
 Energy Carolinas expects to complete restoration of wind-storm power
 outages for customers whose homes and businesses are capable of receiving
 power in all areas other than Western North Carolina.
     (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20020923/CHM008LOGO-c )
     The western part of the state sustained more damage and experienced
 stronger winds well into Tuesday. As of 4:30 p.m. today, approximately
 8,200 Progress Energy customers were still without power in Buncombe,
 Henderson and Mitchell counties. Crews expect to restore power to most
 remaining customers by tomorrow night, but some customers in more remote or
 heavily damaged areas may be out until Thursday.
     Progress Energy is sending company crews from locations where power has
 been restored to Western North Carolina today to assist in making repairs.
     Since early Monday morning, crews have restored power to nearly 200,000
 Progress Energy customers. The highest number of customers without power at
 any one time was about 70,000, mostly in North Carolina, before noon on
 Monday. The wind storm created new outages throughout the last two days,
 even as crews made repairs.
     Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250
 diversified energy company with more than 23,000 megawatts of generation
 capacity and $10 billion in annual revenues. The company's holdings include
 two electric utilities serving approximately 3.1 million customers in North
 Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Progress Energy's nonregulated
 operations include energy marketing. Progress Energy is the 2006 recipient
 of the Edison Electric Institute's Edison Award, the industry's highest
 honor, in recognition of its operational excellence. The company also is
 the first utility to receive the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates
 Founder's Award for dedication, commitment and sustained improvement in
 customer service. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the
 company's Web site at www.progress-energy.com.
 
 

SOURCE Progress Energy