FRANKFORT, KY – Kentucky Power continues efforts to restore power to approximately 4,850 customers affected by this week’s devastating ice storm. At the peak of outage cases, more than 33,200 customers lost power as ice and snow accumulated over the company’s 20-county service area. With the assistance of more than 900 restoration personnel, the company is working as safely and quickly as possible to restore service to customers:
 
Restoration Notes:
Ice buildup on trees continues to cause outage cases. Poor road conditions and snow cover still blanket many areas hindering restoration efforts. Company officials caution outage numbers can still increase as branches, broken by ice accumulations, fall and damage power lines and equipment. Long range forecasts call for the possibility of more wintry weather Monday.
 
Downed power lines continue to be a problem and company officials caution Eastern Kentucky residents to never approach downed power lines or wires of any type. No matter how harmless a downed wire may appear it should be considered energized and dangerous. Report all downed power lines to Kentucky Power at (800) 572-1113 or notify local emergency or law enforcement officials immediately. Never approach or touch anything that comes in contact with a downed power line.
 
Customers should be aware that Kentucky Power cannot connect power to any home or business where there is damage to the electrical service entrance. The service entrance is the area located 1) at the meter, 2) between the meter and the home’s electrical panel, or 3) the location where Kentucky Power’s cable connects to the home/business owner’s cable. Customers need to have a qualified electrician repair this damage and a state inspection performed before power can be restored to the home or business. Kentucky Power’s Customer Solution Center representatives can provide customers more information about this requirement by calling (800) 572-1113.
 
Outage Numbers and Restoration Estimates
As of 10 a.m. today, the following outage numbers and restoration information was estimated by the company. More than 85 percent of all customers affected by the storm have been restored to service.
 
Cannonsburg/Ashland Area:
2,900 customers out of service
Boyd County: Full restoration estimate: Midnight, Monday 2/2/09
Carter County: Full restoration estimate: Midnight, Monday 2/2/09
Lawrence County: Full restoration estimate: Midnight, tonight

Paintsville Area:
1,950 customers out of service
Johnson, Magoffin & Morgan Counties:
90 percent restoration estimate: Midnight, tonight. Full restoration estimate: Midnight, Monday 2/2/09

 
Customers and media representatives can track the number of outages in their area by going to www.kentuckypower.com and clicking on "storm & outage center" then "see current outages." The site provides a customer outage count by county.
 
Kentucky Power is an operating unit of American Electric Power and provides electricity to approximately 175,000 customers in all or parts of 20 Eastern Kentucky counties.
 
American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP’s transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP’s utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP’s headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.
 
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