As of 9 a.m., Dominion Virginia Power and the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative reported about 90,000 power outages in Northern Virginia.
Most of the Dominion outages were in Fairfax County with 38,265 and Prince William County with 10,798.
Most of NOVEC’s 24,884 outages were in Prince William County with 21,986.
NOVEC spokesman Mike Curtis said a major Dominion Virginia Power transmission line failed, causing most of the outages.
“The Dominion line delivers power to eight NOVEC substations in Prince William and Stafford counties. Dominion Virginia Power is aware of the outage and is working to restore the transmission line to service, but is currently unable to provide an estimated restoration time,” Curtis said in a news release.
In addition to the failed line, there are dozens of outages due to icing on trees and power lines.
One of the big issues in PWC is whether to spend $11 million dollars to bury utility wires along Route 1. Today brings the question of buried utilities home real fast. It’s real easy to go cheap when it isn’t YOU who has lost their electricity.
Loss of electricity is loss of money, time, health and at times, life. Remember that those without electricity probably are without heat also. Those on a well also don’t have running water. Traffic signals also are out, putting additional stress on public safety. People also lose their phones, radios, TVs, and computers. Scoff if you want. What if someone needs to call the rescue squad.
All utility wiring should be underground. It saves us all money in the long run. Those trying to make a political issue of it certainly aren’t the ones being inconvenienced I feel positive. For instance, if the Sheriffs of Nottingham were without power, and had to sit behind a dark computer rather than spewing out vitriol, he would be singing a very different tune.
Frank Principi had the right idea. His initiative was really a pro- business, pro-family, pro-Prince William County motion.
“All utility wiring should be underground”… Yes, and all subdivision should have street lights too! We know the sad reality of that one though, don’t we? 👿
City of Manassas Utilities — I love you! Power restored in less than an hour this morning in the Weems community.
We have above ground lines and our power went out around 3 or 4 a.m.. We finally got out the generator after realizing how widespread the outage is. We’ll have to use the kerosene heaters for heat – mixed with enough fresh air to avoid asphyxiation. No hot water or stove though the microwave and one burner will work.
A lot of renovation needs to occur around Rt. 1 in Woodbridge. The power lines are a good place to start. Counties need to invest in their older communities in order to make the area look like a place to make an investment of private dollars. I notice the condition of roads and the appearance of the surroundings when I cross county or state lines. I’m sure investors do as well.
This county has played cheapskate long enough – bragging about low taxes while ignoring the increasing class sizes in schools , the lack of investment in some of its parks, or the response time of its emergency vehicles. The roads are improved only to become over-crowded in mere years because of the glut of new plastic-coated beige dwellings which pump out more kiddos for the schools, more residences for emergency personnel to cover, more cars for the roads – ad nauseum.
Censored’s words should be their own thread. She nailed it!!!
Hear that, Supervisors!
Call me crazy, but why are we expected to spend tax dollars to improve the infrastructure of a private energy company like Dominion? Shouldn’t they be footing the bill for these upgrades? How about we fine them 100K per 100 outages per hour? That should be incentive enough.
Perhaps it is possible to work a a government/private partner plan to take care of burying the utilities. But let’s be realistic–burying the power lines isn’t all the solution–I live in an area where the power lines are buried and we had an 11 hour outage yesterday. Why? Well, unless you bury the power plants and long distance transmission lines, the system still exists above ground.
Censored really did nail it–until this county has a BOCS that has a greater intelligence than their collective show sizes and are willing to figure out that nothing is free–we are going to continue to have problems.
Any time wires are on the way to your house and they are above ground, you risk outages. I get them at my house too but much less often than neighborhoods that are above ground.