Charleston, W.Va., July 4, 2012 –   Approximately 50 percent of Appalachian Power’s customers now have electricity following Friday’s storm that knocked out power to more than 573,000 people in Virginia and West Virginia. Appalachian Power crews and thousands of workers from outside the company have been able to restore power to 287,437 customers.

             A few additional outage and restoration facts:

• In West Virginia, 174,960 of the company's half-million customers remain without electric service.
• In Virginia, 110,578 of the company's half-million customers remain without electric service.
• Crews are continuing to find additional damage to our distribution and transmission facilities.
• Additional crews from outside the area will join the restoration effort as they become available.
• Currently more than 3,000 workers are dedicated to storm restoration in Virginia and West Virginia.
• More than 90 distribution substations were taken out by the storm and all but 21 are back in service.
• More than 370 circuit breakers were taken out of service due to the storm and all but about 90 have been restored.
• At least 500 poles across Appalachian’s territory were broken and are in the process of being replaced.
• Approximately 100 transmission lines were affected by Friday's storm, but 80 percent of
these lines have been either partially or completely restored to distribution stations.
• Damage was minimal to transmission structures/towers.
• Power restoration will continue for at least the next six days with more than 3,000 workers in every area of our territory.
• Outages are restored by priority. Critical community infrastructure, such as hospitals, water and sewer stations are given highest priority. Then, priority is given to outages that will restore the largest number of customers when a repair is made.

Appalachian Power has 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, which delivers 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.

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