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National Grid to Offer Power Restoration Times for Entire State by Tuesday Afternoon

National Grid said Tuesday that it would offer exact power restoration estimates later in the afternoon.

 

National Grid says it will have exact power restoration estimates by the end of Tuesday, according to company President Marcy Reed.

The estimates, which have always traditionally been offered when the company knows when each customer will have their power back, will be distributed “far and wide,” said Jackie Berry, a company spokeswoman.

There are a total of 2,400 National Grid employees at work on Tuesday afternoon statewide in Massachusetts, ranging from line crews, tree crews, transmission crews and other workers following Hurricane Sandy.

There are 530 total crews at work, with more than 300 of those from outside National Grid's service area.

In addition, the newly created “community liaisons” are at work in the emergency operations centers in each city and town that National Grid serves. They are in charge of working with police chiefs, Department of Public Works directors and others to manage each community’s priority list.

Reed said National grid crews from Massachusetts would leave to assist in Delaware, Long Island, New Jersey and other areas to the south affected by Hurricane Sandy only after finishing restoration efforts in Massachusetts.

“They are facing a massive challenge on that area,” Reed said. “When we are done we will absolutely end a hand.”

Yesterday, as winds were gusting to more than 50 miles per hour, Reed said the company was in “hurry up and wait” mode. Now that the wind has subsided, the company went into “full-force" damage assessment and restoration work as of 5 a.m.

At the peak, there were 237,000 National Grid customers without electricity statewide. That number was down to 153,000 at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

“We’ll make very good progress for the rest of the day and into the night,” she said in a conference call with reporters.

Two things that Reed said have contributed to an improved response to outages after Hurricane Sandy, versus after last year’s Hurricane Irene and “Snowtober” pre-Halloween snowstorm, have been the community liaisons and the storm’s slow movement. The storm slow approach to New England gave crews from as far away from Georgia and Texas to get to Massachusetts before the storm hit.

When restoring power, Reed said transmissions lines are the first priority.

“Those are the backbone of our network,” she said, noting that eight hospitals in the state lost power during the storm and all eight of them were restored on Monday night.

Two major 100kv transmission lines were also knocked out and those have been restored, she said.

Related Topics: Hurricane Sandy, National Grid, National Grid power outage, Power Outage, and Tewksbury power outage

L C

6:10 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Ok, I call bull...it's not afternoon any more & I am still in the dark with no restoration time.

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L C

6:17 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Just hung up with National Grid & was told that they are NOT providing restoration times to anyone & he doesn't know what to tell me & there is no one else I can speak to & when I asked to speak with a supervisor I was told they aren't providing supervisor assistance/callbacks at this time.

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Susan Palet

7:34 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

It's all BS. No electricity for over 24 hours trying to care for a 93 yr old who just started hospice care at home. Their priorities suck! This is a real hardship

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Kelli Miller

8:37 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

3 month old twins and 30 hours with no power and no one has any answers, this is ridiculous!

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EBH

10:02 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Who is the liaison for Tewksbury? Article states every city/town ngrid services will have a liaison, who do we call?? No answers when calling ngrid directly 34+ hours with no power

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L C

10:06 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Yeah I'd love the liasons #...I'm also leaning towards my husbands idea of boxing up my rotting fridge & freezer contents with my bill next month marked paid in full & sending it to National Grid.

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joanne lewis

10:14 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012

National Grid stop lieing and be truthful i've been without power for 2and half days!
Marcy Reed do you have power!!!! I've called 10 times and the national Grid Reps are afraid to tell us any new updates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Chris

8:19 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012

I love how national grid said last night that Tewksbury would have a 100% power by the end of the day yesterday. well here it is Wednesday and still no power. I called this morning and the lady told me we wont have power untill the 2nd!! I agrer with lc..im going to box up my fridge and send it to national grid marked paid in full!!

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sandra

9:08 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012

I still have no power! I also have a wire down on my street and have called National Grid and told them and they still haven't done anything about it.

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Bid

11:06 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Called NG and they stated midnight Friday evening for the restore on Heath Street. 5 days for one tree! Imagine if it was more than one. Personally, I don't think they were fined enough by the AG for the last storm. Didn't they state they were prepared for this storm?

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Joanna Marie

2:41 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Heath Street now has the power back

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sandra

2:44 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2012

hopefully my street will get power back on.

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