Dominion Exceeds Interim Goal, Restores Service to 77 Percent of Customers Affected by Hurricane Irene

RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion has surpassed its interim goal of restoring electric service to 75 percent of customers today.  As of 11 a.m. today, service was restored to more than 920,000 of the 1.2 million customers, or 77 percent, in Virginia and North Carolina affected by Hurricane Irene.

Work has been completed at approximately 8,500 locations. Work at the remaining 11,500 locations has been scheduled and updated with an anticipated restoration date.  Individuals without electric service as a result of Hurricane Irene can learn when to expect their service to be restored by calling 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357).

The estimated restoration time is based on the amount and extent of damage known to exist at each work location. As systems are restored, additional damage may be identified.  As that occurs, the estimated restoration times may change.  

If customers have already reported their outage -- thank you. If they have not – customers should continue to call 1-866-DOM-HELP (1-866-366-4357) to report their outage and receive updates.

"We are continuing to work diligently to restore power," said Rodney Blevins, vice president of distribution operations for Dominion Virginia Power and Dominion North Carolina Power.  "We understand how challenging the situation can be for our customers without power, and we thank them for their patience.

"Our customers have endured difficult conditions for several days, and they are counting on us to focus all available crews and equipment on the areas that remain without power," said Blevins. "As we complete our field work, we send the crews to assist in the remaining restoration.  Dominion employees, contractors, retirees and crews from other utilities are restoring power as safely and quickly as possible, and additional crews and equipment will arrive today."

Restoration times will vary by locality or region. Central and Eastern Virginia and North Carolina were the hardest hit regions because of the hurricane's sustained high winds and heavy rain.  Storm restoration was completed yesterday for Virginia customers in the Washington, D.C., metro area, where damage was least severe, and crews were moved to areas with continuing work.

The company continues working towards its system-wide target of restoring service to 90 percent to 95 percent of all Irene-affected customers by Friday evening.  Nearly all remaining customers will have service restored by Saturday night.  

Storm restoration information is available online at http://www.dom.com/storm-center/index.jsp. An outage information map is available on Dominion's website at http://www.dom.com/storm-center/dominion-electric-outage-map.jsp.

A video description of the storm restoration process is available online at http://www.dom.com/storm-center/how-we-restore-power.jsp.

Dominion (NYSE: D) is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,200 megawatts of generation. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com. 

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SOURCE Dominion Virginia Power; Dominion North Carolina Power