NOVEC Technicians Working Through Independence Day to Restore Power

Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative linemen and technicians plan to work through the July 4th holiday to restore power to the 607 customers who are still without electricity at the height of the summer.

NOVEC technicians worked through Tuesday, bringing the total number without power down to under a thousand from 2,500 at the beginning of the day, according to data released by the not-for-profit electric provider.

Seven out of the 5,224 NOVEC customers in Manassas Park are still awaiting power restoration.

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Tuesday was the first day of normal operations for the community center since a relatively unexpected storm known as a moved through the Washington D.C. and left a trail of downed power lines and 11 deaths in Virginia.

 NOVEC has crews working in Fairfax, Fauquier, Prince William, and Stafford counties, but one of the hardest hit areas is Loudoun County.

 “… The storm almost decimated lines that feed two of our substations near Hillsboro and Lovettsville as well as our lines that go from these substations to co-op customers,” NOVEC operations manager Larry Shaffer said.

“While Dominion repaired their lines, our tree crews removed trees from lines to prepare for an army of line tech crews. After Dominion finished their repairs (Monday)  we sent in that army to replace broken utility poles and reconnect power lines. Now we’re racing the clock to get service restored to our customers as soon as possible.”

 NOVEC officials said workers plan to replace some 25 utility poles today.

Techs and linemen are working to get things back to normal as soon as possible, but and the high temperatures complicate things, supervisors said.

“Cover these problems with a thick coat of heat and humidity and you’ll know why some repairs are taking time,” said Greg Williamson, NOVEC system operations supervisor. “Trust me, NOVEC workers understand how hot and miserable it is for people without air conditioning. Nevertheless, we’ll keep working until everyone is reconnected.”