LG&E and KU Energy LLC

October is officially here and cooler Fall temps are on the way! 🍂🍁 Make sure your HVAC is ready to run as efficiently as possible by changing your air filter at the beginning of each month. Learn more HVAC tips at https://lnkd.in/eC6d7ZZ4.

As crews continue restoring power for our customers, oftentimes we get asked about the amount of time necessary for crews to make repairs. This is what’s considered the “heavy lifting” stage of the restoration process. Over the last several days, crews worked through rain and heavy winds and around debris to access equipment. They worked in tight spaces requiring specialized equipment, along mountainsides and through dense forests. They worked in backyards and along busy city streets. In these challenging conditions to tackle nearly 1,600 downed wires, repair damaged equipment and replace more than 130 broken poles, crews worked safely and as quickly as possible for our customers and the communities we’re proud to serve. We appreciate your continued patience and understanding as we continue restoration efforts for those of you who remain without service from the fourth largest storm to impact our service territory over the last 20 years.

Our crews and utility partners made considerable progress yesterday making repairs and getting power restored, and we now expect to have power restored to majority of our Lexington customers still without power by 11 p.m. today. While crews are working safely and as quickly as possible in the field, we have hundreds of employees who’ve been working behind the scenes to support our customers. When we can, we’ll reroute power around an affected area to limit the number of customers impacted by the storms. Our operators from our control centers and employees in our call centers work every day 24/7 behind the scenes to support our crews in the field and customers. Since Hurricane Helene swept across our service area, our operators helped manage more than 2,800 outage events, each representing an individual outage location that affected more than 215,000 customers in total. Our Customer Services team assisted customers with handling needs during more than 16,000 phone calls and helped manage nearly 160,000 entries through our 24/7 automated outage reporting channels. Safety remains our top priority. Always assume any downed wire is an active power line, stay away and call us immediately. We encourage customers to visit our online outage map for the most current information. We’ll continue to update estimated restoration times for customers, based on crews’ feedback in the field and the level of damage we’re finding at customers’ properties.

We appreciate our customers' patience as we continue to work around the clock in the hardest hit areas to make repairs and restore service safely and as quickly as possible. When crews are facing 60+ mph wind gusts and treacherous terrain in remote areas, installing more automated equipment and using advanced technologies has helped crews more quickly pinpoint the outage location and begin making repairs. This is a bird's-eye view of our system using drone technology. It's just one of the ways we're investing in new technologies to harden our system, increase safety measures for crews when facing difficult terrain and enhance our restoration process. For customers who are still without power, we'll continue updating estimated restoration times based on crews’ feedback in the field and the level of damage we’re finding at customers’ properties. Please continue to check our online outage map for the latest updates.

We’ll continue updating estimated restoration times based on crews’ feedback in the field and the level of damage we’re finding at customers’ properties. If our outage map shows service has been restored in your area but you’re still without power, please let us know and report it to us through our mobile app, outage texting, online through your account or through our automated phone system. In some instances, there may be damages at your property or to your electrical equipment that will require repairs before we can safely restore power to your home or business. Customers are being notified when crews identify property or equipment damages during their in-field assessments. We have resources available on our website to help you understand who is responsible for what electrical equipment based on the type of service connection you have (See diagrams below). Please, we ask that you hire a licensed electrician to make any necessary repairs to ensure they're done safely. Visit https://lnkd.in/g6YmebWj to learn more.

⚠RESTORATION UPDATE⚠ Sunday, Sept. 29 🕘9:00 AM EDT We appreciate our customers continued patience as our behind-the-scenes team and more than 1,000 employees and partners in the field work safely and as quickly as possible to restore power to the remaining impacted customers. Our crews have worked safely to restore 87 percent of the more than 205,000 customers impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene that moved across our service territory. We continue to work around the clock making repairs to the nearly 1,500 downed wires and 101 poles that have been assessed so far. In terms of total impact, this now ranks as the 4th largest event for LG&E and KU over the last 20 years. We’re continuing to update estimated restoration times based on crews’ feedback in the field and the level of damage our crews are finding at customers’ properties. We encourage customers to continue checking our online outage map for the latest updates.

⚠️ RESTORATION UPDATE ⚠️ Saturday, Sept. 28 🕞 3:30 PM EDT We appreciate our customers’ continued patience as crews have been responding to 1,450 downed wires, 82 broken poles and other damages. We’ve restored service for more than 72% of our 195,500 total customers impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Our crews, employees working behind the scenes and business partners continue to work around the clock to restore power safely and as quickly as possible for all of our affected customers. We have 400 additional resources – from regional business partners, mutual assistance partners and our sister utility PPL EU – joining our more than 530 field workers out in our communities. During our restoration efforts, we’ll continue shifting crews from our more than 40 crew centers to support our hardest hit areas. As we assess damages safely and as quickly as possible, we’ll continue updating restoration times based on crews’ feedback from the field. We encourage customers to continue checking our online outage map for the latest updates.

⚠️RESTORATION UPDATE⚠️ Friday, Sept. 27 🕘9 PM EDT Our crews and employees behind the scenes are working around the clock to restore power for our customers impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. As we assess damages safely and as quickly as possible, we are establishing area-wide, or “global,” estimated restoration times when we expect to have power restored for the majority of customers in an area. Some of our customers that are without power can now see an estimated restoration time on the outage map. For those customers in our hardest hit areas, we expect to have all global estimated restoration times established mid-day tomorrow. We’ll continue updating restoration times based on crews’ feedback in the field and the level of damage we’re finding at customers’ properties. We appreciate your patience and encourage customers to continue checking our online outage map at https://lnkd.in/g7X-9uFZ for the latest updates.

A reminder of why it is so important to stay away from downed wires and keep others away, too. This video taken by one of our trained employees from today’s storm demonstrates just how powerful and dangerous an energized power line can be. ALWAYS assume any downed wire is an energized power line and call us immediately. LG&E: 502-589-1444 (fast path 1-1-3) KU/ODP: 800-981-0600 (fast path 1-1-2)

⚠️RESTORATION UPDATE⚠️ We are continuing to experience significant impacts from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. As of 3 p.m. EDT, more than 100,000 customers were without power as the storm continues to move across our service territory. We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding. Our primary focus right now is protecting the public, responding to emergency situations and reports of nearly 800 downed power lines and damages. We currently have 530 field workers on the job assessing the damage and working to restore power. An additional 400 resources have been secured to support what’s expected to be a multiday restoration event. Damage caused by this storm has been extensive and widespread and is continuing to occur. Our online outage map has the latest estimated restoration times for outages and customers can access it at stormcenter.lge-ku.com or through our mobile app. As always, STAY AWAY from any downed wires and report them to us immediately.