Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC)experienced widespread outages throughout the service territory as thunderstorms dumped heavy rain and lightning Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning. Approximately 10,000 customers had brief power interruptions, most lasting less than 15 seconds, when lightning struck transmission lines. For about 3,600 customers, outages were longer in duration ranging from thirty minutes to a few hours.
Lightning strikes hit VEC transmission lines, along transmission lines owned by other distribution utilities that feed the VEC system. Nearly all outages were restored by midnight at which time weather conditions became more settled. VEC members from Grand Isle to the Northeast Kingdom were impacted.
At 5:30 Wednesday morning about 100 members remain without power in Morgan where flooding on Route 111 washed away trees and two utility poles. VEC line crews are resetting the utility poles and estimate a power restoration time of 9:00 AM. Poor road conditions due to flooding have made restoration in this area challenging.
Storms similar in severity are expected on Wednesday and likely to continue into early evening hours. VEC operations staff is prepared for the possibility of more storm-related outages on Wednesday.
For more information go to www.vermontelectric.coop/outage.
Thunderstorms cause widespread outages in VEC system
Submitted by tim
on