National Grid 'Working to Restore Power'

Submitted by National Grid

With an early blast of winter delivering an unprecedented blow from Massachusetts to the Mid-Atlantic region yesterday and this morning, National Grid urges customers to stay focused on safety as the company continues its storm outage restoration efforts in the region. 

On record as the worst October snowstorm in New England history, the storm produced outages from the mid-Atlantic to New England and resulted in officials declaring a State of Emergency in Massachusetts. Across the Northeast, millions of customers are without power. National Grid is working to restore power to approximately 400,000 customers in the company’s Massachusetts service area.

“First and foremost, we urge customers to be safe," said Marcy Reed, president of National Grid Massachusetts. "Having snow of this magnitude this early is an unusual event for us even in Massachusetts, but National Grid has been poised and ready to meet this winter season head-on. We are in full restoration mode. It’s our job to provide safe and reliable energy to our customers and during adverse events, our role is heightened. We cannot stress enough that people should stay clear of downed wires and the areas surrounding them. Affected customers are encouraged to call the downed wires and outages line and customers may also follow us on Twitter (@nationalgridus) to obtain restoration updates.”

National Grid urges residents to consider all downed wires to be energized and dangerous, including telephone, fiber optic and cable TV wires since they may be in contact with energized electric wires that are not within your view.  Never go near downed power lines or fallen trees and tree limbs that could be entangled in wires that are not readily visible. 

National Grid has hundreds of crews repairing damage from the storm, which has resulted in significant tree and wire damage in Central and Western Massachusetts and the Merrimac Valley. Contractor crews from as far away as North Carolina, Michigan and Ohio are aiding in the response. The company expects to have estimated restoration times available later on Sunday or early Monday. 

During a major outage, crews begin restoring service as soon as safe conditions are established. Under National Grid’s priority system, repair crews first address problems with transmission lines and substations that serve large numbers of customers, restoring critical customers such as hospitals and public safety facilities.  While this work is underway, additional crews activate work on substations and primary lines serving large numbers of customers.  Next, crews target secondary lines serving local neighborhoods and finally, lines and transformers within neighborhoods and the wires that connect them to homes and businesses until power is restored in full.

For Service Updates:

Downed wires and outages line: 800-465-1212 (in MA, RI, NH)
Outage central
Twitter: @nationalgridus
Facebook

For the outage map of Northborough, click here.

National Grid will provide frequent updates on storm restoration efforts until business returns to normal operations.