Energy company working in hardest-hit communities to complete time- and labor-intensive repairs

MANCHESTER, N.H. (April 6, 2024) – With power restored to more than 289,000 customers following the early spring Nor’easter that brought historic amounts of wet, cement-like snow and fierce winds to the state on Wednesday night, Eversource’s massive force of more than 2,200 line, tree and service crews are working through the final phase of the significant restoration effort. Throughout the day, hundreds of crews worked in the hardest-hit communities to complete challenging repairs that restore a small number of customers—many in remote areas on difficult terrain that require labor-intensive work like climbing. Some of these time-intensive repairs to restore single-customer power outages will continue into Sunday.

“Our plan for pre-positioning crews in advance of the storm and quickly mobilizing the vast number of crews that arrived from all over the country to impacted communities greatly accelerated our progress restoring power for our customers,” said Eversource New Hampshire President of Electric Operations Doug Foley. “We’re pushing hard to have nearly everyone back on by midnight tonight. We appreciate that this is the second significant storm within a two-week period that many of our customers experienced a multi-day outage. I can’t thank them enough for their patience and understanding while our massive team—in the field and behind the scenes—continues working around the clock to get the power back for everyone.”

Crews work to restore power on Dover Point Rd in Dover.

As the storm moved out of the region Thursday, Eversource’s electric system continued to take on damage until approximately 1 a.m. Friday morning. Entire trees uprooted and branches buckled under the weight of heavy, wet snow and fierce winds, falling onto power lines and across roads. Crews are continuing work to replace 260 utility poles—more than double the number of broken poles the energy company replaced following the historic Nor’easter last March. Using smart switches the energy company has installed to its electric system, Eversource’s system operators remotely isolated power outages and restored power to more than 76,000 customers in fewer than five minutes throughout the restoration effort. These investments shaved days off a longer duration event. In addition to repairing significant, widespread damage to the electric system, crews supported communities with clearing 319 blocked roads and addressing 1,100 public safety issues.

Eversource leveraged an array of innovative solutions to help speed restoration for its customers, including an efficient pole replacement process using logger trucks to deliver utility poles before crews arrive and helicopter and drone patrols to quickly survey power lines and locate system damage. Additionally, crews used Eversource’s innovative rapid pole technology to keep power flowing to customers while broken utility poles were replaced, as well as its cut and clear truck to more quickly and safely clear downed wires. Eversource also reminds customers to always stay clear of any downed wires and report them immediately to 911, and customers who use generators for backup power should operate it outdoors, as far away from the home as possible, and away from any air vents, windows and doors.

Additional information regarding restoration progress and safety tips before, during and after a storm can be found at Eversource.com.

Eversource (NYSE: ES), celebrated as a national leader for its corporate citizenship, is the #1 energy company in Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies for 2024 and recognized as a Five-Year Champion, appearing in every edition of the list. Celebrated as a national leader for its corporate citizenship, Eversource is New Hampshire’s largest electric utility, serving nearly 535,000 homes and businesses in 211 cities and towns, and also supplies water to approximately 10,300 homes and businesses in eight communities. Eversource is proud to be recognized as the #1 contributor to United Way in New Hampshire. Eversource harnesses the commitment of approximately 9,900 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of safely delivering reliable energy and water with superior customer service. The #1 energy efficiency provider in the nation, the company is empowering a clean energy future in the Northeast, with nationally recognized energy efficiency solutions and successful programs to integrate new clean energy resources like a first-in-the-nation networked geothermal pilot project, solar, offshore wind, electric vehicles and battery storage, into the electric system. For more information, please visit eversource.com, and follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. For more information on our water services, visit aquarionwater.com.

CONTACT:
Kaitlyn Woods
603-860-3123
Kaitlyn.woods@eversource.com