MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – Santee Cooper distribution crews have restored all residential and commercial power outages caused by Hurricane Helene and are now helping utilities in other parts of the state restore those distribution systems.
Meanwhile, Santee Cooper transmission crews are continuing work to restore the utility’s nearly statewide transmission system, which serves South Carolina’s electric cooperatives and several municipal utilities.
“Our crews are working tirelessly to restore our power system, and they have made good progress already today,” said Vicky Budreau, Chief Customer Officer. “The challenges continue to be primarily trees that have fallen on the lines or tree-related damage to the transmission structures.”
As of 4 p.m. today, Santee Cooper has 18 remaining transmission substations out, affecting Aiken, Mid-Carolina, Newbery and Edisto electric cooperatives. Most of the outages are in the Aiken area.
“Helene took out 116 transmission substations. We were able to cut the outages in half yesterday, and again in half today,” said Jimmy Staton, President and CEO. “Our crews are working diligently and safely in very challenging conditions, and they’ll stay on the job until we’ve restored power delivery to all our customers.”
Santee Cooper also increased the volume of spilling at Lake Marion’s Santee Dam, to 60,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). Inflows have continued to increase into Lake Marion as the rainwaters across the Santee Cooper watershed make their way downstream. Santee Cooper is working to keep lake levels below the FERC operating license maximum elevation and began spilling at 20,000 cfs yesterday.