EMCs Enter Final Phase of Restoration

Crews Enter Final Stretch Of Enormous Rebuilding Effort

Tucker, Ga. —Since Thursday, EMCs have restored power to nearly 400,000 customers who lost power following Tropical Storm Zeta which produced widespread and extensive damage to the electric transmission and distribution system.

This morning, EMCs are addressing approximately 2,200 outages in remote and isolated areas primarily in north and northeast Georgia. At this juncture, customer density and location of outages are critical factors impacting the time and difficulty associated with repairs. By their nature, EMCs serve rural areas of the state and have far fewer customers per mile of distribution line (average is 10) compared with investor-owned utilities (average of 34) and publicly-owned utilities or municipal systems (average of 48).

Current outages are located in EMC service areas which have an average density of 10 customers or less per mile, and their systems span hundreds of miles in rural counties. As such, crews can make one repair and restore service to as few as three households compared with investor-owned utilities or municipal systems which can make one repair and restore service to 75 or more houses.

EMCs were in discussions with states across the region in the week leading up to and after Zeta to secure more resources including additional linemen, support personnel, supplies and other services. Resources arrived and were staged ahead of the storm and continued to arrive when damage assessments were made.

Despite the additional resources, EMCs recognize this has been a lengthy restoration process and wish to thank their members for continued patience during a very trying time, as every available resource has been and is dedicated to complete restoration.

For specific information on local EMC efforts, members should visit their EMC’s web site or follow progress on their EMC’s social media pages.

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.