Winter Storm Frida Impacts Over 1,400 BARC Electric Consumers

Millboro – Winter Storm Frida marched across Virginia in the early morning hours of January 3, 2022 wreaking havoc with heavy snow, gusty winds and icy conditions across the state. As the storm moved through BARC’s service area it created widespread power outages across the cooperative’s entire electric system taking down power lines, transformers and trees. BARC crews began responding to power outages beginning at 2:30 am Monday morning and at the height of the storm, had over 1,400 electric consumers without power. BARC crews and contract crews with Lee Electrical Construction began power restoration efforts as soon as reports of power outages from consumers started in the early morning hours.

BARC and Lee crews spent all of Monday, January 3rd in the field working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power. Outages on the system were scattered across all counties BARC serves with electricity. For the field crews’ safety, restoration efforts were halted around 10 pm Monday evening. The loss of daylight, temperatures in the teens and treacherous road conditions halted efforts until Tuesday morning with about 20 consumers still without power. BARC made attempts to contact all impacted consumers that power would not be restored until January 4th and crews returned to the field at 7am to finish power restoration efforts with all consumers back online by the afternoon.

All of Virginia was impacted by Winter Storm Frida and power outages were widespread impacting 155,000 cooperative consumer meters across the state. Electric cooperatives across Virginia worked diligently to restore power to their members with help from out-of-state cooperatives and other Virginia sister-cooperatives. “This was a fast-moving, intense storm that quickly created widespread power outages on our system with heavy snow and gusty winds,” said Chris Botulinksi, Interim BARC CEO. “Our crews and staff were prepared and quick to take action restoring power to 1,400 member-consumers across three counties on Monday. We did have a handful of consumers restored on Tuesday as well and we greatly appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.”

BARC is sending one 4-man crew to Northern Neck Electric Cooperative (NNEC) Wednesday morning to assist in power restoration efforts. As of Tuesday evening, NNEC had restored about 70% of their outage areas with just under 2,400 consumers still without power. The National Weather Service has issued a new winter storm warning for our area beginning Thursday, January 6, 2022 in the afternoon through Friday morning.

BARC crews were well-prepared for the storm event, with crews and staff pre-staging supplies and materials essential for restoration, and ensuring on-call crews had prepped trucks and gear. With the latest storm warning issued, BARC is again making preparations to respond in the event there are power outages from the storm and will have all hands on-deck.

BARC like their consumers, does not enjoy the occurrence of power outages, especially those prolonged by extreme weather conditions. The co-op appreciates all member-consumers for their patience and understanding and the hard-work and dedication of BARC lineworkers and field crews who braved the elements to return electricity, light and heating to consumers.