SVEC Begins Restoration after Hurricane Debby

Hurricane Debby loomed over SVEC’s service territory for much of today, leaving about 96% of the cooperative’s consumer-members without power.  At about 2:00 p.m. today, wind speeds finally subsided enough to allow damage assessments and power restoration to begin.

SVEC has 160 people working in the field this evening, with another 280 arriving at the co-op tomorrow.

Flooding continues to be a major concern for our area and will likely hamper power restoration to some degree.

Currently, six of SVEC’s 13 substations are without power due to a loss of transmission services provided by Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light. SVEC is in close communication with both companies as they work to restore those services as quickly and safely as possible.

Substations without transmission service:

• Smith
• Ward
• David
• Blackmon
• Sandlin
• 185th

SVEC and contractor crews follow a process designed to safely restore power to the most consumer-members in the shortest time possible. This process begins at substations, followed by distribution lines that feed power to large groups of people such as entire neighborhoods. Smaller tap lines and individual service lines are then repaired to restore power to members who may still be without electricity.

It is important to remind everyone that road and weather conditions remain hazardous. Sheriff’s offices are reminding everyone not to drive through standing water, no matter how shallow it may appear to be. Also, to avoid serious injury or even death, the public should stay away from downed power lines and not attempt to remove branches or other vegetation from them.

Stay up to date on the status of the co-op's restoration efforts by visiting SVEC’s Storm Updates webpage and by following our social media channels: http://facebook.com/sveccoop and https://www.instagram.com/sveccoop/.

County	Total Consumers	Consumers Out	% Out
Columbia	2,129	1,900	89.2%
Hamilton	4,173	3,500	83.9%
Lafayette	3,579	3,579	100.0%
Suwannee	18,954	18,600	98.1%
Total	28,835	27,579	95.6%

About Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative

SVEC is a not-for-profit cooperative which provides safe, affordable and reliable electric service to over 28,000 consumers in Florida’s Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee counties. SVEC maintains over 4,100 miles of electric distribution lines and serves an area of about 2,100 square miles. svec-coop.com.