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Power restoration nears completion

Utility leaders now anticipate full restoration Monday
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Posted at 7:49 PM, Dec 19, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-19 21:49:26-05

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Power restoration work in Colorado Springs will continue into Monday. Crews of linemen and tree trimmers have been working round-the-clock to get power restored following Wednesday's wind storm.

During the peak of the storm, some 40,000 outages were reported. By 9:00 a.m. Sunday, just 1,500 outages remained.

At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Charlie Cassidy, General Manager of Energy Construction, Operations and Maintenance, Colorado Springs Utilities told reporters Sunday afternoon that the goal was to bring the number of outages down ton 600 by the end of the day.

More than 70 crews of linemen and tree trimmers are part of the power restoration effort, including 16 crews from outside of the community who were either contracted or are helping thanks to mutual aid agreements.

"During the initial response, our crews were focused on restoring as quickly and as safely as possible," Cassidy said. "So now, they're going to come back where necessary and make those final repairs. If and when this occurs to you, these are purposeful outages and they're going to be less than thirty minutes typically."

He wanted customers to know that when their power is restored, they might experience another short term outage, typically less than 30 minutes. This is necessary to make final repairs to safely finish the job.