Public power utilities help La. cooperative with power restoration efforts

by APPA News
October 13, 2020

Public power crews are hard at work helping Louisiana cooperative SLEMCO restore power in the wake of Hurricane Delta.

SLEMCO on Tuesday, Oct. 13, reported that as of noon, it had 18,600 customers without power. “SLEMCO crews and several hundred contract crews are working on repairs to feeders still out and also working on outages at individual locations,” the cooperative said on its Facebook page.

Later in the day, SLEMCO reported that as of 3 p.m., SLEMCO had 16,481 customers without power.

On Oct. 10, SLEMCO reported that its system had sustained catastrophic damage from Hurricane Delta, with more than 98 percent of its system without power.

SLEMCO, which is headquartered in Lafayette, La., provides power to 109,000 members in Southwest Louisiana.

Public power utilities send crews to help with restoration efforts

Crews from the following public power utilities have deployed to assist SLEMCO with the cooperative’s power restoration efforts:

• Austin Energy (Texas)
• Opelika, Ala.
• Conway Corp (Arkansas)
• Harrisonville, Mo.
• Nixa, Mo.
• Palmyra, Mo.
• Poplar Bluff, Mo.
• Rocky Mount, N.C.
• High Point, N.C.
• Wake Forest, N.C.
• Henderson, Ky.
• JEA (Florida)
• Santee Cooper (S.C.)
• Orlando Utilities Commission (Florida)

Public power crews pre-positioned prior to Hurricane Delta

Public power crews had already deployed and the mutual aid network had been active before the tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Delta began affecting southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas at the end of last week.