Thousands of crews make solid progress, remain on track to restore power to 99% of customers by tonight

BERLIN, Conn. - Eversource continues its massive restoration effort with more than 2,500 line and tree crews working nonstop to repair the extensive damage and restore remaining outages following Tropical Storm Isaias. While adhering to strict COVID-19 safety protocols, crews have restored power to more than 58,000 since yesterday, and restoration to the nearly 26,000 customers still without power remains on track to be substantially complete by tonight at 11:59 p.m.

'We're at the late stages of the restoration process where the final outages often call for extensive repairs that are labor-intensive and time-consuming,' said Eversource President of Regional Electric Operations Craig Hallstrom. 'For example, we can have five or more crews - which can be about 18 people - working most of the day to repair the damage at one location and that will bring power back to only one customer. Our massive team - in the field and behind the scenes - is fully committed to every single customer affected by Isaias and is working urgently to complete this restoration. As we get toward the end of this major restoration I personally want to thank the men and women who have put forward a historic response to this storm.'

The widespread damage caused by Tropical Storm Isaias rivals - and in many cases surpasses - the destruction caused by other recent historic storms. Isaias caused damage at more than 20,000 locations across the state, compared to 16,101 from Tropical Storm Irene and 16,460 for Superstorm Sandy. Peak outages from Isaias - which occurred on Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. - impacted 632,632 customers; peak outages during Irene and Sandy were 671,000 and more than 496,000 respectively.

To ensure that there are no interruptions to voting today, Eversource restored power to approximately 550 polling sites and has provided generation power to a small number of other polling locations. The energy company continues to work closely with communities and local officials to identify any issues at these locations throughout the state and will work quickly to resolve any that arise.

Customers can find a listing of estimated restoration times for their towns on eversource.com. As the hot weather this week continues, customers can also find a list of available cooling stations in Connecticut via United Way 211 or at www.211ct.org.

Eversource (NYSE: ES), celebrated as a national leader for its corporate citizenship, is the #1 energy company inNewsweek's list of America's Most Responsible Companies for 2020 and recognized as one of America's Most JUST Companies and the #1 utility byForbes andJUST Capital. Eversource transmits and delivers electricity to 1.25 million customers in 149 cities and towns, provides natural gas to 237,000 customers in 74 communities, and supplies water to approximately 198,000 customers in 52 communities across Connecticut. Eversource harnesses the commitment of approximately 8,300 employees across three states to build a single, united company around the mission of safely delivering reliable energy and water with superior customer service. The #1 energy efficiency provider in the nation, the company is empowering a clean energy future in the Northeast, with nationally-recognized energy efficiency solutions and successful programs to integrate new clean energy resources like solar, offshore wind, electric vehicles and battery storage, into the electric system. For more information, please visiteversource.com, and follow us onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram, andLinkedIn. For more information on our water services, visitaquarionwater.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Tricia Modifica
(860) 665-5670
tricia.modifica@eversource.com

Mitch Gross
(860) 665-5221
mitch.gross@eversource.com

After hours -

Al Lara
(800) 789-2290
Albert.lara@eversource.com

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Eversource Energy published this content on 11 August 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 August 2020 19:42:17 UTC