EEI ANNOUNCES KENTUCKY POWER AS EMERGENCY RESPONSE AWARD RECIPIENT
Ashland, KY – June 10, 2021 – The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) yesterday announced Kentucky Power as a recipient of EEI’s Emergency Response Award for the response to the February Ice Storm that left 59,000 customers without power.
Presented to EEI member companies, Emergency Response Awards recognize recovery and assistance efforts of electric companies following service disruptions caused by extreme weather or other natural events. The winners were chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process, and the awards were presented during EEI’s virtual Board of Directors meeting.
“Many EEI member companies experienced historic storms and other significant weather-related events in recent months that left customers without power,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “Mutual assistance is a hallmark of our industry and is critical to ensuring a safe and efficient restoration. Crews worked around the clock and often in the most dangerous of conditions to assess damage and to restore power safely and as quickly as possible. They did all of this during a global pandemic.
“Kentucky Power and its employees went above and beyond for the customers and the communities impacted by the February Ice Storm and they are exceptionally deserving of this outstanding award.”
The February weather event that hit Kentucky Power’s territory brought back-to-back ice storms, followed by snow, extensive rain and flooding during a two week restoration period.
“We had more than 2,000 personnel working on restoration for this storm and it took every one of them to make thousands of repairs to damage caused mostly by ice,” said Brett Mattison, president and chief operating officer-Kentucky Power. “Our teams worked tirelessly day and night to get every customer restored. We cannot say enough about them, but also the same for our customers for the resilience and patience they exhibited throughout the recovery.”
Appalachian Power, Kentucky Power’s sister company, received the same recognition for restoration efforts in West Virginia.
These men and women done a great job working in those conditions
I’m normally very dissatisfied with this company, but I will say that they did prepare for this storm by bringing in additional help beforehand and had most power restored in a surprisingly short time considering the conditions. I was without power 7 days, but I really expected to be out much longer. That was a storm to remember.
You’ll be paying for it one way or the other.
You’re right about that.
Who should pay for it ?