LG&E and KU continue restoration efforts following impacts from Hurricane Helene

Remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread damage across the LG&E and KU service territories on Friday, impacting more than 205,000 customers and making it the 4th largest event for the utilities over the last 20 years. Our crews and partners have worked safely to restore service for more than 87 percent of all impacted customers and are working around the clock to restore service for the remaining impacted customers safely and as quickly as possible.

• The hardest hit areas so far have been Norton, Va., and Lexington, Richmond, Maysville, Pineville and Louisville in Kentucky.
• Heavy rain and strong winds downed nearly 1,500 wires and broke more than 100 poles (these numbers are expected to increase as damage continues to be assessed.)
• We currently have more than 1,000 employees and partners in the field safely working on all aspects of the restoration effort. They’re protecting the public, assessing and repairing damage and restoring power to the communities we’re proud to serve.
  • Note: Early last week, we began mobilizing our crews and resources and preparing with partner utilities and regional business partners based on the forecast and potential for the hurricane remnants to reach Kentucky and our Virginia service areas. We did not send any crews to support other utilities’ Hurricane Helene restoration efforts. While we take pride in supporting other utilities when we can, our top priority is serving our own customers, which is why we did not send any resources down south for this event.
• We have more than 40 crew centers across the state and are able to strategically position and redirect those resources to areas where they’re needed most.
• Service restoration take place through a prioritization process that involves several different layers. While we work to restore customers’ service, we’ll also use our ability to reroute power when we can from our control center, coupled with automated controls installed on our system, to limit the number of customers affected. During the restoration process:
  • First, we’ll restore critical services in our community - hospitals, fire and police stations, airports and nursing homes.
    Next, we restore as many customers as we can as safely and quickly as possible.
  • Then, we repair any damaged equipment. Whenever possible, temporary repairs are made to restore power quickly and allow time for longer repairs to take place.
  • For customers still without power, crews then make repairs to the individual power lines and service lines that feed directly to customers’ individual homes and businesses.
  • LG&E and KU will continue to update estimated restoration times based on crews’ feedback in the field and the level of damage our crews are finding at customers’ properties. Customers are encouraged to continue checking the online outage map for the latest updates.

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About LG&E and KU

Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve more than 1.3 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 335,000 natural gas and 436,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 545,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and 28,000 customers in five counties in Virginia. More information is available at www.lge-ku.com and www.pplweb.com.