ST. LOUIS, Jan. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A total of 76 Ameren line workers and support personnel from Missouri and Illinois fly to Puerto Rico tomorrow morning. Their mission will be to repair energy infrastructure and ultimately help restore power to the citizens of Puerto Rico due to the catastrophic destruction of electric infrastructure following Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Ameren and other U.S. energy companies who are members of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) are part of a contingent of 1,500 additional personnel arriving from the United States, increasing the total number of power restoration workers in Puerto Rico to more than 5,500. Ameren crews will be deployed for three week rotations. Equipment from Ameren, including trucks and trailers, left by barge from Norfolk, Virginia, earlier this month and is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
"This restoration mission is a massive, unprecedented mutual aid effort," said Warner Baxter, chairman, president and CEO of Ameren Corporation. "We wish our co-workers, who volunteered for this assignment, and other crews from across the industry safe travels as they do extraordinary work to bring the power back to the citizens of Puerto Rico."
The island has been sectored into seven regions for purposes of the restoration. Ameren co-workers will work in the Carolina Region, located on the northeast coast immediately east of San Juan.
"The arrival of more crews in Puerto Rico is the culmination of months of planning and building operating and logistical infrastructure," said Ray Wiesehan, vice president of Corporate Security and Crisis Management for Ameren. "Our teams, working with industry colleagues, EEI and the local energy company, are ready to accelerate the power restoration process for the people of Puerto Rico."
Earlier this month, EEI presented Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois with the association's "Emergency Assistance Award" for outstanding work assisting customers impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Harvey in September 2017. The award is presented to EEI member companies to recognize an outstanding response in assisting other electric companies in power restoration efforts after service has been disrupted by severe weather conditions or other natural events.
Follow us on social media for the latest updates on Ameren's Puerto Rico restoration efforts.
About Ameren Corporation
St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois provides electric distribution and transmission service, as well as natural gas distribution service, while Ameren Missouri provides vertically integrated electric service, with generating capacity of over 10,200 megawatts, and natural gas distribution service. Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois develops regional electric transmission projects. For more information, visit Ameren.com, or follow us at @AmerenCorp, Facebook.com/AmerenCorp, or LinkedIn/company/Ameren.
SOURCE Ameren Corporation