FRANKFORT, KY: 10 A.M. – Kentucky Power continues to restore power to thousands of customers following Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s severe snow and ice storm. At the height of the outages, more than 33,200 Kentucky Power customers lost electric service. By early today, company crews had restored power to nearly a third of those customers. Ice continues to cling to trees throughout the area as temperatures remain below freezing. The weight of the ice continues to stress trees and drop branches across power lines and equipment, hindering restoration efforts.
 
Due to the extent of the damage, Kentucky Power estimates it could be Wed., Feb. 4, before all of its customers are returned to service, although the majority of customers will see power restored before then. Continued cold weather makes restoration work more difficult as crews deal with weather-related hazards as well as those inherent in working with electricity. To help combat the outage cases, Kentucky Power has recruited dozens of additional line and tree crews from as far away as Michigan to aid in restoration efforts.
 
Company officials caution Eastern Kentucky residents to never approach downed power lines or wires of any type. No mater 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.
 
As of 10 a.m. today, the following outage numbers were estimated by the company. Company officials said these numbers can still increase as the ice-laden trees continue to cause problems. Cold weather is expected in the region throughout the remainder of the work week with temperatures rising above freezing Sunday.
 
Service Area Customers
Cannonsburg/Ashland 15,000
Est. Rest. for majority of customers Sun. 2/1/09;
Est. Rest for all customers, Wed. 2/4/09
 
Paintsville, 7,000
Est. Rest. for all customers, midnight, Sun. 2/1/09
 
Pikeville, 250
Est. Rest. for all customers, 6 p.m. Thursday
 
South Williamson 1,225
Est. Rest. for all customers, noon, Saturday 1/31/09
 
Total 23,475
 
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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