Saturday, May 16, 2009

10-hour power outage starting Thursday, 8 pm

Due to Dominion Virginia Power maintenance work, power in our neighborhood will be out from Thursday, May 21, 8 pm to Friday, May 22, 6 am. Dominion Virginia Power says:
We advise you to set the controls of your refrigerator and freezer to a colder setting the night before, and refrain from opening the doors once the power is off. A fully loaded freezer will keep food frozen for up to 2 days if the door is not opened. [from Virginia Power letter dated May 6]

If you have questions about this power outage, you can call Dominion Virginia Power at (888) 667-3000.

I only retrieved from my mail stack the letter from Virginia Power because I got a call on Thursday informing me that the 10-hour power outage scheduled to start that evening (!!???) had been rescheduled to May 21. Virginia Power should do a better job of informing its customers about upcoming power outages. A telephone call is a bare minimum. A letter would be a good supplemental means of information. I suggest that Virginia Power should also make a special effort to inform leading local news sources in the affected areas.

The geographic extent of the power outage isn't clear. Apparently Prospect House isn't affected, nor is the apartment building at 1510 12'th St.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen. Not only that, they should do a better job of "upgrading" their equipment. We have suffered *six* lengthy partial power outages since the work in May. Each one has cost us a service call to get our condominium's A/C compressor restarted, and two people have had to replace refrigerators damaged by the power surges. This is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

I live in the Memorial Overlook condos and would like to know if anyone has the specific dates of the power outages that have occurred since the upgrade in May. We are in the process of sending a letter to Dominion outlining the costs incurred by the outages and want to include specific dates. I have lived here 5 years and have never experienced outages previous to the "upgrade."

Douglas Galbi said...

I know of two power outages at my apartment since this one. One was when a tree knocked down a power line near the corner of Ft. Myer Dr. and Arlington Blvd. Don't remember the date of the other, which I think was also during stormy weather.