Restoration Nearly Complete in Central N.C.; Crews Still Working in Mountains

RALEIGH, N.C., April 17 /PRNewswire/ — By 7 p.m. today, Progress Energy Carolinas expects to complete restoration of wind-storm power outages for customers whose homes and businesses are capable of receiving power in all areas other than Western North Carolina.

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The western part of the state sustained more damage and experienced stronger winds well into Tuesday. As of 4:30 p.m. today, approximately 8,200 Progress Energy customers were still without power in Buncombe, Henderson and Mitchell counties. Crews expect to restore power to most remaining customers by tomorrow night, but some customers in more remote or heavily damaged areas may be out until Thursday.

Progress Energy is sending company crews from locations where power has been restored to Western North Carolina today to assist in making repairs.

Since early Monday morning, crews have restored power to nearly 200,000 Progress Energy customers. The highest number of customers without power at any one time was about 70,000, mostly in North Carolina, before noon on Monday. The wind storm created new outages throughout the last two days, even as crews made repairs.

Progress Energy, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 diversified energy company with more than 23,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $10 billion in annual revenues. The company’s holdings include two electric utilities serving approximately 3.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Progress Energy’s nonregulated operations include energy marketing. Progress Energy is the 2006 recipient of the Edison Electric Institute’s Edison Award, the industry’s highest honor, in recognition of its operational excellence. The company also is the first utility to receive the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates Founder’s Award for dedication, commitment and sustained improvement in customer service. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.progress-energy.com/.

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Progress Energy

CONTACT: 24-hour Media Line, +1-877-641-6397, or +1-919-546-6189,fax: +1-919-5466615

Web site: http://www.progress-energy.com/