The Edison Electric Institute on Wednesday presented Minnesota Power with the association's Emergency Recovery Award for its power restoration efforts after severe thunderstorms hit Minnesota in July of 2016.
The award is presented twice annually to EEI member companies to recognize their efforts to restore power to customers after service disruptions caused by severe weather conditions or other natural events.
The July 21, 2016, storms with wind gusts of up to 100 mph were the most damaging to hit Minnesota Power's transmission and distribution system in half a century. About 57,000 customers across Minnesota Power's service territory-more than one-third of the company's 145,000 customers-were without power in the immediate aftermath of the storms. Half of those had electricity restored within 24 hours. Others experienced multi-day outages of varying degree as numerous uprooted trees and other storm debris made assessing damage and gaining access to complete repairs difficult. Minnesota Power crews and mutual aid responders worked more than 31,000 hours to restore power to customers and achieved 100 percent restoration within a week.
Al Hodnik, ALLETE chairman, president and CEO, praised Minnesota Power employees. Minnesota Power is a utility division of ALLETE Inc.
"Our terrific employees and other industry partners rose to meet all of the challenges, fully recognizing that our customers' everyday lives were put on hold as they worked safely to restore power," Hodnik said. "We saw employees' unwavering dedication to customer service and we appreciated the support from the community even as some experienced several days without electricity."
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EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Members provide electricity for 220 million Americans, operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and directly and indirectly employ more than one million workers.
