AUGUSTA — Central Maine Power projects that power will be restored to the vast majority of customers by Sunday night, according to a news release, and will keep workers in the field until restoration is complete.

Central Maine Power has restored power to 100,000 customers and will continue to add contractors to its restoration work today, April 11, to address the nearly 150,000 outages remaining across its service territory caused by the snow, rain and wind storm Thursday night and Friday, the release noted.

The company reported a statewide total of 260,000 impacted at some point during the storm.

In addition to 100 CMP crews, the company is aided today by 439 contractor line crews as well as 222 tree crews.

“We worked through the night and we have more than 2000 people working hard to restore outages today,” said Doug Herling, President and CEO of CMP. “We understand this is a holiday weekend and that Maine people must stay home because of state orders. We’re working as quickly and safely as possible to repair the system damage and will be out until the last customer is restored.”

The company asks that for the health and safety of the working crews and the public that customers not approach lineworkers on work sites.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is also directing lineworkers and field staff to take all appropriate precautions including:

• Limiting one employee per vehicle travelling to field locations

• Working in separate teams to minimize contact

• Restricting visitor access to company facilities

• Entering a customer residence only in the event of emergency and after assessing risk

• Maintaining appropriate physical distancing in the field

CMP advises customers to use online tools, accessible at www.cmpco.com to report and monitor outages.

To ease the financial impact of the pandemic, CMP announced that it is suspending late payment and customer reconnection charges for all customers and has extended eligibility protections to customers participating in certain payment plans.

Restoration priorities:

• CMP follows an orderly process when restoring service that emphasizes safety and seeks to make effective use of resources.

• CMP’s immediate concern after a storm is public safety. Restoration teams work with towns and the state to de-energize downed lines, clear roads and restore previously identified critical facilities such as hospitals and shelters.

• Next, CMP focuses on assessing damage and repairing the backbone of the electrical system: substations, transmission lines, circuits and primary lines. Crews focus on locations where they can restore large numbers of customers at once.

• Then, crews restore equipment and lines that serve smaller groups of customers.

• Finally, crews focus on restoring remaining service lines to individual homes and buildings until every customer has service. This phase may begin while higher-priority work is already underway.

If you lose service:

• To report an outage, visit Outage Central at cmpco.com. Customers may also report an outage using CMP’s 24/7 automated phone system at 800.696.1000.

• Keep sensitive electronic appliances such as computers, TVs and stereos plugged into a surge protector, or unplug them. They could be damaged if a power surge occurs when electricity is restored.

• Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. For information about food safety, visit http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/refridg_food.html.

• Never use a stove or oven, or an outdoor grill or heater, as an indoor space heater to stay warm. Only use space heaters intended for indoor use inside or in enclosed spaces, following the manufacturer’s instructions. If you are unable to keep your home safely heated, call Maine 211 for resources.

For customers with generators:

• Hire a licensed electrician to install permanent generators and transfer switches.

• Properly ground all portable generators.

• Carefully read and observe all instructions in your generator’s operating manual.

• Never run a generator indoors, or even in an open garage.

• If your carbon monoxide detector goes off – get out of the building immediately and call 911.

• Do not store fuel indoors or try to refuel a generator while it’s running.

• Refer to CMP’s web page on generator safety