National Grid Positions New England Resources in Advance of Hurricane Earl

WALTHAM, MA (09/03/2010)(readMedia)-- National Grid is ready to deploy hundreds of crews throughout eastern New England as Hurricane Earl approaches the region. With peak winds and rain expected during the overnight hours of Friday and Saturday morning, more than 530 line and 200 tree-trimming personnel along with more than 110 employees responsible for responding to reports of wires down, are poised to respond to damage reports. In addition, several hundred additional National Grid personnel will support the recovery effort should power outages occur.

"Our deployment plan allows for the greatest degree of flexibility to get our resources where they're needed, even if Earl's track changes. Pre-staging our crews and equipment in key locations throughout the region, enables us to restore service to our customers as quickly and safely as possible," said Chris Root, National Grid senior vice president of Operations. "We also will have natural gas crews stationed at key locations to make repairs and secure the gas system in the event we have storm damage on our gas infrastructure."

Work hours have been adjusted to have the maximum number of crews available at first light on Saturday. Others crews will work through the night tonight to respond to reports of wires down and other emergencies.

In addition to its field and operations support teams, the company has enhanced its Customer Contact Center services to make certain all calls will be answered quickly.

Safety A Top Priority

National Grid is again reminding the public not to go near power lines and to report downed lines and outages to the company at 1-800-465-1212. The company is also recommending the following precautions:

National Grid offers the following tips for customers to minimize inconvenience and maximize safety in the event that storm-related power interruptions do occur.

• Never touch downed power lines, and always assume that any fallen lines are live electric wires. If you see one, report it immediately to National Grid or your local emergency response organization.
• If you use a generator to supply power during an outage, be sure to only operate it outdoors. Before operating generators, be sure to disconnect from National Grid's system by shutting off the main breaker located in the electric service panel. Failure to do this could jeopardize the safety of crews working to restore power.
• If you lose power, turn off any appliances that were on when the power went off, but leave one light on so you will know when power is restored.
• Power problems can sometimes interrupt public water supply systems or disable well pumps, so it's an especially good idea to keep a supply of bottled drinking water handy, as well as some canned food.

People who depend on electric-powered life support equipment, such as a respirator, should let National Grid know. To register as a National Grid life support customer, call the company's Customer Service Center at 1-800-322-3223.

National Grid is an international energy delivery company. In the U.S., National Grid delivers electricity to approximately 3.3 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island, and manages the electricity network on Long Island under an agreement with the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). It is the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeastern U.S., serving approximately 3.4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. National Grid also owns over 4,000 megawatts of contracted electricity generation that provides power to over one million LIPA customers.

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