Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service Assist CMP with Power Restoration

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

(Bangor and Presque Isle, ME)-Power restoration efforts wrapped up this morning for Bangor Hydro Electric Company following Hurricane Sandy. Crews from Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service headed to Central Maine Power's service territory this morning to assist with restoration efforts in the Alfred and Portland areas.

Bangor Hydro is part of the North East Mutual Aid Group (NEMAG), which organizes deployment of utility crews throughout the Northeast during major power outage events. This morning, Bangor Hydro sent 14 two-person crews, three line supervisors and a mechanic to assist CMP. MPS sent three two-person crews, a mechanic and a line supervisor.

"We were pretty lucky overall as far as the severity of the storm," said Scott Richards, Line Supervisor at Bangor Hydro. "We had about 5500 outages and were able to have most customers restored within 24 hours, allowing us to release crews to assist elsewhere. MPS experienced lower wind speeds and responded to only one power outage during the storm."

Once power has been restored in CMP's service territory, both utilities will determine how many crews are available to assist with restoration at other utilities in New England.

"We want to be sure we leave enough crews in Maine to handle any additional outages that may come our way," Richards said.

About 3-million customers were without power in the Northeast because of the storm.

Bangor Hydro Electric Company and Maine Public Service are regulated electricity transmission and distribution utilities wholly-owned by Emera Inc. Halifax, NS (EMA-TSX. Bangor Hydro serves 117,000 customers in an area encompassing 5,275 square miles in eastern and east coastal Maine, and is a member of the New England Power Pool and is interconnected with other New England utilities to the south and with the New Brunswick Power Corp. to the north. Maine Public Service serves approximately 36,000 electricity customer accounts in Northern Maine. To learn more visit our websites at www.bangorhydro.com and www.mainepublicservice.com.

Emera Inc. is an energy and services company with $7.4 billion in assets and 2011 revenues of $2.1 billion. The company invests in electricity generation, transmission and distribution, as well as gas transmission and utility energy services. Emera's strategy is focused on the transformation of the electricity industry to cleaner generation and the delivery of that clean energy to market. Emera has interests throughout northeastern North America, in three Caribbean countries. More than 80% of the company's earnings come from regulated investments. Emera common and preferred shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and trade respectively under the symbol EMA, EMA.PR.A, and EMA.PR.C. Additional information can be accessed at www.emera.com, www.sedar.com, or on www.sec.gov.