AUGUSTA — Central Maine Power has reduced the total number of customer outages to 11,000 compared to a total number of customers impacted of approximately 219,000, according to a press release. 

This comes as crews continue to make significant progress throughout the day on Saturday.

As a result of the progress, the company announced that many restoration times were improving throughout the service area. Crews will continue to work until every customer is restored.

“As crews restore outages, we have been able to redeploy resources to bolster work already underway” said Kevin Elwell, Director of Electric Operations for CMP. “As a result, our restoration is ahead of schedule.”

In addition to CMP’s 100 crews restoring power, the company has over 490 additional line crews, including 50 AVANGRID crews from New York and Connecticut, 147 Canadian crews, 60 Maine based contractors, and 233 from the New England region. CMP also has approximately 220 tree crews in the field as well.

Original story with the Oct. 19 11:45 a.m. update: 

AUGUSTA — Central Maine Power has reduced the total number of customer outages to 21,000 compared to a peak number of outages of approximately 180,000 at noontime Thursday, and to a total number of customers impacted of approximately 219,000, according to a press release.

As of Saturday morning, the company reported that the estimated time of restoration in many areas is improving faster than anticipated.

“Our crews made significant progress during the overnight period and that momentum is expected to carry on throughout the day on Saturday,” said Kevin Elwell, Director of Electric Operations for CMP. “As a result, estimated restoration times are improving and company personnel are working to update customers in real time via our website’s outage page.”

In addition to CMP’s 100 crews restoring power, the company has over 490 additional line crews — both contractors and from other AVANGRID companies — and approximately 220 tree crews in the field as well. Crews will continue to work until every customer is restored.

With cold weather expected during the overnight period Saturday into Sunday, CMP also seeks to remind customers of the following safety tips and restoration priorities.

Generator and heating information:
• Never use a natural gas or propane range, stove or oven to heat your home.
• Never use a grill or stove intended for use outdoors in your home.
• If you use an emergency generator, please follow the manufacturer's instructions carefully, and review generator safety tips.
• Operate outdoors in a clean, dry area. Never operate a generator indoors, in an attached garage or near a building's air intake. Without adequate ventilation, carbon-dioxide, carbon-monoxide, and other dangerous gases can build up and become deadly.
• Generator must be kept dry and properly grounded.
• Don't touch a generator if you are wet or are standing in water or on damp ground.

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.

Additional information on storm safety and restoration, including a town-by-town listing of outages in the CMP service area with an area map, can be found on CMP’s website at cmpco.com/Outages.