EMCs Continue Challenging Restoration Efforts

TUCKER, Ga. – At 3:30 p.m., EMCs report approximately 98,000 customers without power primarily in metro Atlanta, north and northeast Georgia, down from 117,000 earlier today, and 400,000 yesterday.

Georgia Transmission Corp. crews and EMC crews continued work throughout the day on both high voltage transmission and distribution systems. Georgia Transmission reports that nearly all of the 80 electrical substations that were knocked out by Zeta are now at full operation which will help with restoration efforts since these facilities provide electricity to the local EMCs, which distribute it to customers and businesses through smaller lines.

While EMCs made preparations well in advance of Tropical Storm Zeta, and secured additional crews, equipment and materials prior to the storm, the level of damage in many service areas has required even more resources, thus additional crews arrived in these hard hit areas last night, and more are arriving today. They will join local and statewide crews from Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Regarding restoration estimates, it is not possible to pinpoint an exact day and time due to the challenging conditions and level of damage linemen are facing at each outage. Upon arrival, crews have been faced with huge uprooted trees on top of and entangled in poles, transformers and power lines. For these reasons, some EMCs caution that the restoration process in areas that took the brunt of tropical storm-force winds may continue this weekend.

Note to media: Outage information is available and updated every 15 minutes at www.georgiaemc.com/outages.

Georgia EMC is the statewide trade association representing the state’s 41 EMCs, Oglethorpe Power Corp., Georgia Transmission Corp. and Georgia System Operations Corp. Collectively, Georgia’s customer-owned EMCs provide electricity and related services to 4.4 million people, nearly half of Georgia’s population, across 73 percent of the state’s land area. To learn more, visit www.georgiaemc.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Georgia Transmission Corporation plans, builds and maintains more than 3,100 miles of high-voltage powerlines and 650 substations that deliver electric power to 38 electric membership corporations (EMCs) across the state. Georgia Transmission and our member EMCs are not-for-profit cooperatives that serve approximately 4.1 million people in nearly 70 percent of the state’s land area. See www.gatrans.com.

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