CMP News

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

Corporate Communications - corpcomm@cmpco.com 

Release: Immediate  

CMP crews make progress on storm repair

  AUGUSTA, Maine, Feb. 26, 2010, 4:30 p.m. — Central Maine Power Company (CMP) reports that high winds associated with a severe winter storm have caused widespread outages throughout its service area. As of 4:30 p.m., the company reported that 95,000 homes and businesses without power, down from the peak of more than 133,000 at 10:00 Friday morning. The company said many customers will remain out overnight in many communities.

“We’ve met our goals of making the system safe for the public, and restoring service to critical facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes, and shelters,” said CMP spokesman John Carroll. “Our crews have also patrolled the damaged sections of our transmission system by helicopter, and begun restoration on the three-phase portion of our roadside lines.”

The company is continuing to assess the damage to its system, which includes more than 140 broken poles, 18 of which are on islands in Casco Bay. Crews from New Brunswick and Massachusetts have been working alongside CMP crews for much of the day, and more crews are expected to arrive from Nova Scotia, Michigan, and Florida over the next few days.

Outages by county as of 4:30 p.m.:

County      Outages
 
Androscoggin        1,054 
Cumberland       25,978 
Franklin           998 
Hancock           297 
Kennebec           909 
Knox        7,771 
Lincoln       12,498 
Oxford           390 
Penobscot             -   
Piscataquis           127 
Sagadahoc       12,487 
Somerset           610 
Waldo           189 
York       32,417
 
Total 95,725
 

 Click here to see a map of storm outages and restoration progress by town.

Next update: 10:00 p.m.

About Central Maine Power Company (CMP): Central Maine Power Company, a subsidiary of Iberdrola USA, is Maine’s largest electricity transmission and distribution utility. The company delivers about 9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually to more than 600,000 homes and businesses, representing about 80% of Maine’s annual consumer sales of electricity. The company has been ranked #1 in customer satisfaction three times by J.D. Power and Associates. For more information, visit cmpco.com.