CL&P to Start Posting Estimated Projections on When Power Will be Restored

With over half of the state still in the dark, CL&P President Jeffrey Butler announced Tuesday residents will soon be able to check the status on when power will be back.

“By tomorrow morning we intend to have all 149 towns in our service territory with projections of when 99 percent of their power will be restored,” Butler told the press during a morning briefing with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and United Illuminating President William Reis.

For an unknown reason, Oxford's rate of people without power jumped from 77 percent without as of 9 a.m. to 99 percent as of noon.

CL&P has already placed on its website a list of 50 towns in Connecticut with projections on when they will be 99 percent restored. Most are in the eastern and southwestern parts of the state, which are the areas that were less affected by the October snowstorm that pummeled the region on Saturday.

Butler said 48,000 customers have been restored, leaving just over 672,000 customers still in the dark in multiple towns throughout the state. The power company president said CL&P made “good progress" with restoration on Monday, and it has 770 crews actively working on the ground to remove downed lines and trees and get towns back on the grid.

Main arteries, such as commercial districts in towns, are now restored, allowing for residents to buy groceries, visit the pharmacy and, as Malloy noted, most importately "get gas."

“I recognize that doesn’t mean anything to anyone who has been out of power for an extended period of time,” Butler said.

Butler later added that he understood the public’s frustration with the fact that power hasn’t been restored yet. Some communities in the state are still at 100 percent without power, including nearby Seymour, Prospect and Beacon Falls.

But the power company added that he was also “extremely frustrated” with the situation.

“To go through two record events in two months, it’s something I haven’t dealt with in my career,” Butler said. “We’re here to serve customers and to have large number of customers out for an extended period of time is something that has frustrated us as well.”

Butler said there are 770 CL&P crews — with two workers per crew — working on the lines throughout the state.