Mon Power has made significant progress restoring power flow along transmission lines damaged by the June 29 storm and is shifting its attention increasingly to repairing distribution lines.
"We're beginning to turn the corner now," said spokesman Todd Meyers at a July 3 news conference.
After the storm, all of Mon Power's transmission south of U.S. Route 50 was out, said Mon Power President James Haney, and a good part of the transmission north of Route 50 was out as well, he said.
The large transmission lines carry power from generating stations to substations; smaller distribution lines carry it from substations to homes and businesses.
"Today, we've got most of the transmission back," Haney said. "And until we've got the transmission lines back, we can't restore power in individual areas."
More than half of the 280,000 Mon Power customers affected by the storm had their service restored by 8 a.m. on July 3, with 112,000 still without service. Including sister company Potomac Edison, 132,000 West Virginia customers of FirstEnergy remain without service.
In Mon Power territory, Wood County was and remains the hardest hit, with more than 16,000 still without power; Upshur, Nicholas and Greenbrier counties all have 8,000 still without power.
The numbers with power restored grow more slowly as work shifts from transmission to distribution.
As part of a Power Point presentation for the media, Haney showed a picture of a downed wooden power pole with a tree across it — one of thousands of instances of wires down across the 34 counties the company's distribution system serves in whole or in part.
"It'll probably take a crew most of a day to get that fixed," he said.
Reports of downed wires help the power restoration crews be efficient, according to Mon Power External Affairs Manager Allen Staggers.
"If someone reports losing service, we know there's a problem somewhere," Staggers said. "But if we get a report of a downed wire, we know exactly where the problem is."
Mon Power officials stress the importance of staying away from downed wires.
"People have a cartoon picture of a jumping wire in their heads," Staggers said, "but even if a wire is lying still, it can be live and dangerous."
FirstEnergy's policy is to send a crew in response to every report of a downed wire to protect the public until the wire can be repaired or secured for later repair.
Haney stressed the numbers of linemen and crews working around the clock to restore power to everyone -- 4,300 FirstEnergy workers from all 10 FirstEnergy utilities and 1,400 contract personnel.
"Everyone in the company has a storm role," he said. "No one here is doing the job that they would normally be doing."
The company currently estimates that metropolitan areas will have power by Friday and all others will be restored by the end of the weekend.
FirstEnergy utilities take reports of downed wires at (888) 544-4877.
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