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Kentucky electric cooperatives powering back up with some challenges still ahead

Kentucky Electrical Coops

Slowly but surely, the Commonwealth of Kentucky is powering back up. Officials say progress has been made in making electrical transmission repairs after a historical wind event Friday. Joe Arnold is with Kentucky Electric Co-operatives. At the peak, some 300,000 customers were without power among coops. Arnold said by mid-morning Monday, it was down to 43,000, but in rural areas, those are some of the more difficult tasks.

“To be transparent, if you’re still without power today, I would still plan for multiple days of being without power because these are often the hardest.”

Arnold said thousands of line crews, including more than 400 crews from eleven other states are working on restoration. The co-op vice president noted this goes down as the most widespread event seen by the electric cooperatives.

Arnold said sometimes the damage is done to the house, which often takes longer to fix. He added the thousands of electrical line workers from Kentucky and other states take it personally to try to get homes and businesses powered back up as soon as possible. Electric coops are found in 117 Kentucky counties.

Kentucky Utilities L-G and E reported about 74,000 outages at mid-afternoon Monday. The utility’s peak outage figure statewide for this event was more than 200,000.

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Stu Johnson retired from WEKU in November, 2024 after reporting for the station for 40 years. Stu's primary beat was Lexington/Fayette government.
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