Utilities report more than 1.3-mil customers left in dark by Ivan

Utilities report more than 1.3-mil customers left in dark by Ivan

Philadelphia (Platts)--17Sep2004


Outages from Hurricane Ivan--now downgraded to a tropical storm--total more
than 1.3-mil, including 820,000 at Alabama Power and 360,000 at Gulf Power,
those utilities and others said late Thursday afternoon. Ivan was by far the
most devastating storm ever for both Alabama Power and Gulf Power, according
to spokeswomen for the Southern Company units. It took Alabama Power seven
days to restore power to the 476,000 customers cut off by Hurricane Opal in
1995, a spokeswoman said, adding that Ivan's impact has been much more
extensive. 

The Gulf Power spokeswoman said power-restoration efforts in the utility's
Florida panhandle service territory were being hampered by high waters and the
collapse of a portion of an interstate highway bridge near Pensacola. She said
"the worst-case scenario" is that it might take three weeks to reconnect all
of Gulf Power's customers. Outages at Georgia Power and Mississippi Power
total 63,000 and 60,000, respectively, while outages at Entergy's New Orleans,
Louisiana and Mississippi units totaled only 30,000.

This story was first published in Platts real-time news and market reporting
service Platts Electricity Alert (http://electricityalert.platts.com ).

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