Dominion Energy has completed burying more than 2,500 miles of the most outage-prone power lines in Virginia to reduce power outages and restoration time during storms, as part of the company’s Strategic Underground Program.
The program targets areas with the most outages from fallen trees, the leading cause of power outages in Virginia. The company plans to bury many more miles in the coming years.
The average outage time for customers with buried lines has minimized from 11 hours to 2 minutes. With fewer outages in these areas, crews will more quickly restore power for other customers. In many areas, average restoration time for all customers has been reduced in half during major storms such as tropical storms and hurricanes.
The company’s Mainfeeder Hardening program is also reducing storm-related power outages by replacing many older utility poles and cross arms across the company’s system. Average outage time for customers served by hardened mainfeeder lines has dropped by 30%.
Since 2019, the program has replaced more than 8,000 utility poles and 9,500 cross arms along more than 265 miles of mainfeeder lines, with the aim to reach 1,000 miles by 2030.
