CMP News

Central Maine Power Company, 83 Edison Drive, Augusta, ME 04336 (207) 622-NEWS

Corporate Communications - corpcomm@cmpco.com 

Release: Immediate - An Energy East Company

CMP crews working to fix damage from another spring storm

AUGUSTA, Maine, April 13, 2007  For the second straight week, Central Maine Power Company line crews, assessors, customer service representatives, and support personnel are hard at work responding to power outages caused by severe weather. Thursday's heavy, wet snow has coated tree limbs and branches, bringing them down onto power lines and disrupting service to thousands of customers.

At 11:30 a.m. Thursday, an estimated 11,200 CMP customer accounts were without service. That's down from a peak of about 16,300 at 8 a.m. The utility's Bridgton and Farmington Service Centers have been the hit the hardest, while other parts CMP's 11,000-square-mile service area were spared the worst of the damage.

"We've had only scattered outages in southern Maine and the Midcoast  areas that were hit hard last week," said CMP spokesman John Carroll. "This time around, inland areas like the western foothills and Androscoggin, Kennebec, Franklin, and Somerset Counties saw more damage. We're moving additional resources to these areas and bringing in outside contractors so we can restore service as quickly as possible."

Following is a breakdown of outages by Service Center. Each Service Center includes the city or town listed and about a dozen surrounding communities. A map showing the service areas is available on the company's outage page on its website at www.cmpco.com.

Augusta - 136

Lewiston - 115

Bridgton - 5,559

Skowhegan - 389

Farmington - 2,187

Dover - 2,814

"We hope to have power restored to most of these customers by this evening, but we will continue to have crews working into a second straight weekend," said Carroll. "While we're doing our best to restore service as quickly as possible, we expect some customers in parts of Oxford, and Franklin Counties could be without service into Saturday."

CMP will issue an update, including specifics on towns and roads that may be without service overnight, at approximately 4 p.m. Friday.

About CMP: Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of Energy East Corporation, operates more than 20,000 miles of power lines and other facilities that deliver electricity to 80 percent of Maine's population. Web site: www.cmpco.com.

About Energy East: Energy East Corporation [NYSE: EAS] is a respected super-regional energy services and delivery company that our customers can depend on every day. We are a motivated and skilled team of professionals dedicated to creating shareholder value through our focus on profitable growth, operational excellence and strong customer partnerships. We serve about 3 million customers throughout upstate New York and New England.

— CMP —