SCE&G has completed the process of restoring power throughout its service territory to customers affected by Hurricane Florence.

With approximately 727,000 electric customers, SCE&G’s system-wide outages peaked at 7,593 at 4:35 a.m. on Sept. 15. Restoration efforts continued during and after the storm to repair downed lines, damaged cross-arms and broken poles. There was no significant damage to the company’s generation or transmission assets, solar installations or natural gas system.  

“Although SCE&G’s system was not significantly impacted, we were prepared to respond to destructive weather conditions in the forecast for Hurricane Florence,” said SCE&G President and COO Keller Kissam. “This included having nearly 3,000 SCE&G employees and contract personnel, including 500 out-of-state utility workers, available and dedicated to restoring power to customers affected by strong wind and heavy rain. I’m proud of the work our employees and contract crews do daily to be ready for times like this so that we can help our customers enjoy the comfort of their homes as quickly and safely as possible.”

Kissam added, “Preparation for severe weather begins with the work SCE&G employees and contract crews do every day, including a comprehensive tree-trimming program that removes vegetation from rights-of-way that can cause outages on our transmission and distribution systems.  Also, we perform detailed aerial and ground inspections of thousands of miles of lines each year to determine which assets need replacement and/or maintenance.  These functions serve to maintain and increase the resiliency and reliability of our system.”

Preparations leading up to the storm included trucking fuel to multiple locations, checking operation of emergency generators, preparing remote staging sites, restocking material in storerooms, notifying key and critical customers of possible outages, making hundreds of hotel reservations, and scheduling caterers.

After ensuring that the company was adequately staffed to manage its system, SCE&G began to release off-system contract crews so that they could assist in areas in greater need. SCE&G worked before, during and after the storm to keep customers informed about how to prepare, what to expect, and how to stay safe. Visit SCE&G on Facebook at www.facebook.com/scegnews to see pictures of crews working hard to restore power.

SCE&G thanks the utilities, contract crews and damage assessors that helped with Hurricane Florence restoration. These dedicated crews came to assist the people of South Carolina when their help was most needed to restore power to SCE&G customers safely and efficiently.