Charleston, S.C. – As of 5:36 p.m., more than 20,000 customers in the Lowcountry are without power due to severe weather and infrastructure issues. According to reports, 11,647 of those outages are concentrated in the Knightsville and Summerville areas. Berkeley Electric reported that the main outages in Goose Creek are due to a substation losing transmission, and crews are actively working to restore power. Meanwhile, Dominion Energy confirmed that many of the outages in Summerville are weather-related, with about half of the affected customers having their power restored by 6:45 p.m.
What You Need to Know About Power Outages
If you’re experiencing a power outage, here’s what you should do:
- Do not call 911 to report a power outage. Instead, contact your electric company directly to report the issue, and provide as many details as possible.
- Unplug all appliances that were in use before the power outage to avoid potential damage when power is restored.
- Check the Dominion Energy outage map for real-time updates on outages in your area. The map allows you to report an outage, check outage status, and view weather-related disruptions.
How to Use the Power Outage Map:
- Outage Reporting: From the outage map, you can report an outage or a streetlight outage and check the status of ongoing outages by clicking the blue tabs at the top.
- Power Outage Summary: The gray menu tab in the upper left corner provides a summary of all outages, showing incidents causing power loss and the total number of affected customers.
- Location-Specific Information: Under the “Summary” tab, you can filter outages by county, ZIP code, and region to see how your area is impacted.
- Weather Radar Overlay: Click the green weather tab to access a radar overlay for weather-related disruptions in your viewing area.
- Outage Map Legend: Click the blue box with an “i” to access the map legend, which provides details on outage impacts and updates every 10 minutes.
- Area-Specific Details: Click the colored circles on the map (red, blue, green, etc.) to view information about specific outages and how many customers are affected.
Spokesperson Updates
A spokesperson for Berkeley Electric confirmed that crews are on-site working to resolve the transmission issue affecting the Goose Creek area. Meanwhile, Dominion Energy spokespersons indicated that they are working hard to restore power in Summerville, where half the outages have already been addressed.
