After five days of round the clock work, crews restored power to the last VEC member at approximately 10:30 pm Sunday night. Strong winds that pounded Vermont on Wednesday resulted in extensive damage to VEC’s system, which executives there called the worst in the company's history, which will cost it about $2 million.
At the height of the storm VEC had approximately 12,500 members without power, this equates to one-third of its member’owners.
‘By far this is the worst storm that we’ve ever seen,’ said Dave Hallquist, Chief Executive Officer. ‘At the height of storm there were verified reports of wind gusts of up to 94 mph in some parts of VEC’s service territory which resulted in power outages to more than one-third of our member-owners.’
Several utility poles were felled along this stretch of Oak Hill Road in Williston. A crew from New Hampshire fixes this one. Photo: Vermont Business Magazine.
Restoration outlooks began to look dismal by late Friday afternoon as damage assessments for some of the hardest hit areas came in. Numerous downed trees and power lines and over 80 broken poles in VEC’s system hindered restoration efforts. The further crews progressed the more apparent it was that they were not just repairing damage - they were actually rebuilding parts of the Co-op’s system. By temporarily adding approximately 300 trained line worker and tree removal personnel, VEC’s restoration was successfully completed within five days.
‘It is currently estimated that storm restoration costs will reach $2 million,’ added Hallquist. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that this storm will go down as one of the most extensive and costly power outages in VEC’s history.’
VEC crews with assistance from Burlington Electric Department, Central Vermont Public Service, Green Mountain Power, New Hampshire Electric Coop, Stowe Electric, the Village of Johnson, Bemis Construction, Charles Curtis LLC, Energized Line and numerous tree crews, worked around the clock for five days restoring power to Co-op members. Some members had been in the dark since the onset of the storm early Wednesday morning, December 1st. In addition, support staff worked continuously to provide 24 hour communication support to members including regular website and Facebook updates.
‘Even though power is fully restored to all VEC members, clean-up work for VEC crews is far from done,’ said Jeffrey Wright, Chief Operating Officer. ‘This week crews will continue to replace broken poles that were temporarily repaired, re-assess damage to right-of-ways, respond to partial power issues and repair low hanging services to members’ homes. All of us at VEC appreciate the demonstrated patience of our members during this difficult restoration process,’ added Wright.
‘In the midst of the storm we had no idea how severe the damage was,’ Wright said. ‘The further into the restoration process we got, the more we realized the magnitude of devastation to our system which was best illustrated by the abundant number of broken utility poles we had. In some of the hardest hit areas we were actually rebuilding our system rather than repairing it.’
Utility crews and support staff have been working between 16 and 18 hour shifts around the clock to restore power and answer member calls. At daybreak on Sunday, VEC had a total of 60 line crews and 80 tree crews available to make the final push to get power restored to VEC members in the hardest hit areas of Williston, Hinesburg and Underhill.
Preliminary reports had more than 35,000 Vermont customers losing power as VEC, Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power scrambled to restore service after hurricane force winds swept in from the east, causing significant damage in parts of Chittenden, Franklin and Lamoille counties.