S.C. co-ops near the finish line restoring power following Helene

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s electric cooperatives have made great progress in rebuilding electric infrastructure and restoring power in the wake of Hurricane Helene, but more work is left to be done.

Crews have so far restored power to 421,000 cooperative meters, about 99.1% of those who lost power.

Just under 4,000 cooperative members remain without electricity, down from a high of 425,000 on the morning of Sept. 27.

More than 2,000 line workers – the majority of them from out of state – continue to rebuild and repair the cooperative system, many working 16-hour shifts and sleeping at night in “tent cities” that co-ops have erected in recent days. In addition to those out-of-state workers, 11 S.C. co-ops have sent crews to help restore power for their fellow co-ops on the state’s western half.

Much of the remaining work will take place in the hardest-hit stretches of the Upstate and along the state’s western border, where Helene’s heavy rains and strong gusts tore down thousands of trees and wrecked the power grid beyond repair.

Cooperatives are in the process of replacing more than 5,500 broken power poles, each of which can take up to four hours for a four-man crew to swap out.

In the final stages of restoration, the pace of progress will naturally slow down as crews focus on more isolated outages that affect smaller numbers of cooperative consumers. Many consumers will see their lights come on in the next few days. Others in the hardest-hit areas could be out another week or longer.

“I’m beyond proud of the line workers who have sacrificed time with their families to work long hours in tough conditions as they restore power as quickly as possible,” said Mike Couick, CEO of the Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. “We’ve made great progress. As I’ve said before, our work won’t stop until the very last light is back on.”

A few key points on the ongoing restoration effort:

  • Co-ops helping co-ops: Every S.C. cooperative has deployed line crews to restore power to South Carolinians. The 11 S.C. co-ops that have sent mutual aid crews to help fellow co-ops are: Berkeley Electric, Black River Electric, Coastal Electric, Edisto Electric, Fairfield Electric, Horry Electric, Lynches River Electric, Palmetto Electric, Santee Electric, Tri-County Electric and York Electric Cooperative.
  • Santee Cooper crews also have helped co-ops in their restoration efforts.
  • The cavalry is here: Additional crews have joined the restoration effort from at least 23 states: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
  • Truckloads of equipment: The cooperatives’ materials supplier, CEEUS, is delivering 20-30 tractor trailer truckloads of equipment and supplies to cooperative crews across the state every day – a volume of materials that rivals the response to Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
  • Transmission back online: All co-op substations and delivery points are re-energized thanks to the hard work of the cooperatives’ transmission providers, including Santee Cooper and Duke Energy.
  • More than 80 substations were knocked offline by transmission outages caused by Helene.

The cooperatives are urging the public to exercise caution and patience:

  • Stay away from downed power lines.
  • Use extreme care with portable generators, keeping them outdoors and at least 20 feet from doors, windows and vent openings.
  • Slow down and be mindful of roadside line crews working to restore power.
  • Be on guard against scams. If you receive a suspicious call from someone claiming to be a co-op representative, hang up immediately and call your co-op.

For the latest updates on power restoration efforts, please visit ecsc.org or follow us @SCcooperatives.