Many residents in the Deltaplex receive power from the C&L Electric Cooperative base in Sheridan and Star City, and many of those customers are without power.
C&L released a statement regarding the condition of their power grid, and plans that are in place to begin repairing them:
Additional crews have arrived from surrounding areas/states to help rebuild lines and restore power to our service area. Though we have additional manpower, please be advised that the process could still take several days in some areas.
Members should still prepare for a multi-day outage.
As of now, 20 of our 21 substations do not have power flowing to them. This power is provided by transmission lines from power sources that have been heavily damaged. The power sources are major power plants that are not owned by C&L.
These transmission lines are not typical poles, they are large H-structures like the one pictured here. For example, one transmission line runs from Pine Bluff to Pinebergen, Glendale, Montongo, Monticello, and Lacey. It affects 9 of the 20 substations on our system without power.
We are working hard to rebuild our lines, replace broken poles, and repair damaged electrical components throughout our system. In doing so, when power is restored from the main transmission grid, we will be able to distribute through our substations and down our lines and then into your homes.
Keep in mind, the restoration process follows a certain flow beginning with main lines, and continues out to tap lines and then to individual service lines.
Regarding reporting your outage, call volumes remain high into our call center as they are receiving outage calls from other areas that have been affected by the storm. We apologize for the wait times, we are receiving all of your outage notifications.
We appreciate your patience as we work to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
The power source that is without power the C&L refers to is the Woodward Substation in Pine Bluff. It is damaged, and has no power going to or from the substation according to State Representative Ken Bragg,
“I have spoken to representatives from the Arkansas Electric Cooperatives and Entergy. The Woodward station on the south side of Pine Bluff is completely out and feeds a large area of south Arkansas,” said Bragg. “There is no power in or out. Entergy is working on it and trying to get it running as soon as possible. A large portion of C&L power comes through this station. Entergy said there is a lot of damage to their transmission system and hope to have restoration estimates tomorrow. Efforts are being made to try to determine an alternate transmission source coming up from the south. It could be a while”
