As of 6 PM this evening, NPU has completed restoration of all known outages resulting from Tropical Storm Isiasis and all crews have been released. Again, we thank our customers for their patience and support over the last several days.
Starting tomorrow, NPU crews will be assisting Eversource in neighboring towns.
At this point, any power outages or other utility issues should be reported to NPU by calling 860-887-2555.
Friday, August 7, 2020
10:30 am Update from NPU
At this time, NPU has less than 80 customers out of service following Tuesday afternoon’s storm and we are confident that our restoration efforts will be complete by 1:00 pm today.
On Wednesday evening, there were 6,500 NPU customers out of service. And since then, our entire team has been working very hard – and safely – to restore power for our community.
This morning and early this afternoon, we will be working on the remaining outages that are (with one exception) impacting less than five customers. Those outages are:
Starr Street which is impacting 51 customers and should be complete by noon
Yantic Street 4 customers
Cliff Street 3 customers
North Main Street 2 customers
Belval Street 1 customer
Plain Hill Road 1 customer
Connecticut Ave 1 customer
Dunham Street 1 customer
Yantic Lane 1 customer
West Main Street 1 customer
Knollcrest Road 1 customer
Beech Drive 1 customer
Hickory Street 1 customer
Scotland Road 1 customer
If you do not live on one of these streets and are still without power, please contact our Customer Service Center at 860.887.2555 immediately so that we can send a crew to address your situation.
The entire NPU organization wishes to express its sincere thanks to our customers for their patience and support over the past few days.
Always remember that any downed wire is a potentially lethal hazard and should be reported to 9-1-1 immediately.
Thursday, August 6, 2020
8:00 pm Update from NPU
As of 8:00 pm today, there are approximately 200 NPU customers without power, down from a peak of 6,500 on Tuesday night, 4,000 on Wednesday, and 1,000 earlier today. The NPU team has met our goal of having 99% (all but about 200) of our customers restored by the end of today.
We are hopeful that will be able to reduce this number to about 150 customers in the hours ahead tonight by focusing our efforts on the following areas:
- On and near Scotland Road
- On and near Canterbury Turnpike
- Lee Avenue / Norwichtown
- Laurel Hill
- Starr Street
Some of this work will continue on Friday morning.
We have also secured the assistance of an additional tree crew which will allow us to clear more city streets for traffic and help with our remaining restoration work. This newly-arriving crew will start working on Reynold Road, which should be open to traffic later tonight.
On Friday morning, we expect to be at the point in our restoration effort where the remaining individual outages are impacting less than 10 customers each. We will provide a full list of these outages (a few dozen) tomorrow morning to be sure that we are not missing any customers who are out of power.
Please remember that any downed wire is a potentially lethal hazard and should be reported to 9-1-1 immediately.
This is our final update for Thursday; our next update will be on Friday after 10:30 am.
Thank you for your continued patience.
3:00 pm Update from NPU
As of 3:00 pm today, there are less than 500 NPU customers out of service, down from a peak of 6,500 on Tuesday night and 4,000 on Wednesday.
We remain on track to meet our goal of having 99% (all but about 200) of our customers restored by the end of today. NPU has been working very closely with mutual aid crews from Massachusetts, contractor tree crews, and private electrical companies to help restore power for our customers.
Over the past several hours, NPU has been focused on:
- Cedar Street Apartments, which have been restored
- Significant and challenging tree issues on North Wawecus Hill Road that is hindering restoration
- Central Avenue near 4th Street, which has been restored
- Case Street, where we’ve restored power for customers going up the hill to Whitman Avenue; we are continuing to work in the area this afternoon and evening
- Starr Street, where one of two replacement poles has been set but more work is required to complete the restoration
This afternoon, crews will be working on outages impacting customers on or near Boswell Avenue, West Main Street, and Terrace Avenue.
When this work is completed, the remaining restoration will be:
- 36 separate outages for individual customers
- 14 outages impacting fewer than 10 customers
- 14 outages impacting between 10 and 80 customers
Please remember that any downed wire is a potentially lethal hazard and should be reported to 9-1-1 immediately.
We will provide another update tonight.
Thank you for your continued patience.
10:00 am Update from NPU
As of 10:00 this morning, there are less than 800 NPU customers out of service, down from a peak of 6,500 on Tuesday night and 4,000 at this time yesterday.
We are projecting that by the end of today, we will have 99% (all but around 200) of our customers restored. This will require another long day of hard work by our team but we remain committed to completing the restoration process for our community in a timely and safe manner.
Since 6:00 am today, NPU, mutual aid, and private contractor crews have been working on the remaining large outages in the following areas:
- Plain Hill Road
- Case Street
- Scotland Road
- Canterbury Turnpike
- Winnington Avenue
- Allen Avenue
- Lucas Park Road
We are hopeful that work in these areas can be completed this afternoon.
NPU crews are also working to install two new utility poles that were broken near Starr Street. In drilling for the new poles, we encountered a great deal of ledge which has made the work more challenging and time-consuming. Once the holes are drilled and the poles are set, we can begin to restore power in this neighborhood.
This afternoon, crews will be working on outages impacting customers on or near Boswell Avenue, West Main Street, and Terrace Avenue.
When this work is completed, the remaining restoration will be those impacting very small numbers of customers.
Please remember that any downed wire is a potentially lethal hazard and should be reported to 9-1-1 immediately.
We will provide another update in the early afternoon.
Thank you for your continued patience.
9:00 pm Update from NPU
At this time, we project that by 10:00 pm tonight, we will have approximately 1,000 customers without power, meeting the aggressive goal that we set this morning at 8:00 am. At the start of work on Wednesday, we had about 4,000 customers out of power, down from a peak of 6,500 just after yesterday’s storm.
Over the next hour, we will be finalizing our restoration work on the near Scotland Road, Yantic Lane, and Browning Road.
Many of our employees have now worked more than 36 hours over the past two days with just a few hours of sleep last night. As the safety of our employees and the public is our highest priority, our plan is to complete as much work as we can up to 10:00 pm tonight so that our employees can get a good night of sleep and be prepared to start again tomorrow at 6:00 am.
Tomorrow, our crews will be focused on the next group of outages in the following areas:
- Case Street 150 customers
- Plain Hill Rd 115 customers
- Ox Hill Road 107 customers
- Oneco Street 83 customers
- Terrace Avenue 48 customers
- West Thames Street 44 customers
- Whittington Avenue 42 customers
- Sherwood Lane 34 customers
- Tower Hill Road 34 customers
We are hopeful that all of this work can be completed on Thursday. This will bring us to a point where we are addressing power outages that are impacting very small numbers of customers.
Once again, we remind everyone that any downed wire should be assumed to be energized and a potentially lethal hazard. Please report any downed wires to 9-1-1 immediately.
Thank you for your patience with our restoration effort and your ongoing support for our hard-working employees in the field.
As of 6:00 pm, our outages are just above 1,500 and we remain on track to reduce that number to approximately 1,000 by the end of the night.
At this time, we are focused on the remaining, larger outages that are impacting more than 100 customers:
- Ox Hill Road 186 customers
- Hunters Road 164 customers
- Plain Hill Road 115 customers
In the hours ahead tonight, we will also focus on removing trees and starting restoration work in the Case Street, Scotland Road, Wightman Avenue areas of Norwich. Some of this work will continue into Thursday morning.
Once the power is restored to the larger outages, we will focus on the smaller outages on Thursday.
We have two contractor tree crews that are working closely with both NPU and Norwich Public Works employees to clear downed trees from city streets. Once trees are cleared, our restoration work can begin.
Earlier this afternoon, we restored power to almost all of our customers in Taftville, Greeneville, and the Oakland Heights neighborhood.
Any downed wire should be considered a potentially lethal hazard and should always be reported to 9-1-1 immediately.
Thank you for your continued support and patience. We will do our best to provide an additional update later this evening.
As of noon today, we have approximately 2,500 customers out of service, which is down from a peak of more than 6,500 last night and 4,000 earlier today.
At this time, we project that we will be able to restore power for at least 1,500 additional customers today.
We continue to address heavy tree damage throughout Norwich; we also have approximately 15 utility poles that are damaged and must be repaired or replaced.
The mutual aid crews from Massachusetts have arrived and are working to restore power for our customers.
NPU crews are currently working on outages that are impacting customers in the following neighborhoods:
- Hickory Street / Orchard Street, which should be restored shortly.
- Asylum, Mechanic and West Main Streets
- Greeneville near North Main Street
This afternoon, crews will be focused on the following areas:
- Boswell Avenue and Sandy Lane
- Canterbury Turnpike / Case Street
- Yantic Lane
- Plain Hill Road / White Plains Road
We understand that customers who have been out of service for several hours can be frustrated with our restoration progress. But it is important to understand that we prioritize this work based on the largest number of customers who will return to service by our addressing an outage.
With more than 60% of our restoration work safely completed, we will turn our attention to the outages that are impacting smaller numbers of NPU customers. These repairs can still take several hours to complete.
We appreciate your patience as well as the hundreds of supportive comments that have been directed to our hard-working employees on Facebook.
As of 10:00 this morning, we have approximately 4,000 customers out of service, down from a peak of more than 6,500 last night.
At this time, we project that we will be able to restore power for at least 2,000 customers today.
NPU has secured the assistance of four mutual aid crews and a supervisor through the New England Public Power Association (NEPPA) to assist with restoration. These crews are from Rowley Municipal Lighting, Marblehead Municipal Light Department and Groton Electric Light Department, all from Massachusetts; the supervisor is from Groton Utilities in Connecticut.
We are also engaging with private contractors to assist with smaller, individual service restoration today and tomorrow.
Our focus at this time are the outages that are impacting the largest numbers of customers:
- Starr Street and along Asylum Street
- Harland Road near Taftville
- Greeneville moving toward Taftville
- Canterbury Turnpike / Case Street / Lawlor Lane outage could take most of today
- Plain Hill Road, where three broken poles that need to be replaced
- Yantic Lane, where there is significant damage. We may be able to restore power for a significant portion of these customers but there will be customers in this neighborhood out of power until Thursday.
Customers in other sections of Norwich should anticipate that they will be out of power for all of Wednesday and into Thursday. As our planning and restoration work continues throughout the day, we will provide additional information.
Over the past 16 hours, NPU crews have been working very hard to remove trees and tree limbs from our power lines and city streets; we are also working to make our system safe in dozens of locations so that our restoration work can begin.
As always, any downed wire should be assumed to be energized and a potentially lethal hazard. Please report any downed wires to 9-1-1 immediately.
Our next update will be early this afternoon.