Progress Energy Carolinas deploys crews to assist restoration efforts in Virginia and West Virginia

Progress Energy Carolinas will deploy more than 150 line crew members, contract workers and support staff to assist with power restoration in Virginia and West Virginia, where high winds have left hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity.

Progress Energy Carolinas teams will depart on Friday morning to assist host utility AEP in service restoration. Crews are expected to be deployed for up to one week. The strong winds left destruction in parts of the Midwest and Appalachian regions.

As of 11 a.m. today, AEP reported approximately 212,000 customers without power in its Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia service areas.

Progress Energy has mutual-assistance agreements with utilities in the region. The pacts help to reduce restoration times by reinforcing the on-the-ground workforce during major outages. Progress Energy’s customers have benefited from the agreements in the past after major hurricanes and ice storms. Progress Energy crews returned just last week from Kentucky, where they assisted with restorations following a devastating ice storm. Work and travel costs accrued while assisting other utilities are funded by the requesting utility, not by Progress Energy customers.