Savannah Electric crews return safely from storm duty

After several days of hard work restoring power in Middle Georgia, Savannah Electric’s storm team returned home safely Tuesday afternoon.

The team left Savannah on Friday amid deteriorating weather conditions, unsure of the duration or ultimate destination of their trip. First staging in Augusta, they were relocated to the Milledgeville area once damage had been assessed. There they helped restore power to some of the hundreds of thousands of Georgians impacted by the storms and icy conditions.

The team was requested by Savannah Electric’s sister company, Georgia Power, in anticipation of widespread outages caused by the winter weather. The 27 Savannah Electric employees were from both Savannah and Springfield Operations Centers.

Savannah Electric also released its contractors from Pike Electric for emergency storm response, representing an additional 32 workers. Twenty-six tree-cutting personnel from Asplundh also went to help. Those workers are expected back soon, now that restorations are largely complete.

As part of a mutual assistance agreement with other utilities, Savannah Electric responds to emergency assistance requests when its own service area is not threatened and would receive similar assistance during local emergencies. Savannah Electric most recently provided help to sister companies Georgia Power and Gulf Power last fall in response to the several hurricanes that affected their service territories.

Savannah Electric and Georgia Power are both subsidiaries of Southern Company, one of the largest electricity producers in the United States.

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