Utility providers keeping busy this winter

Its been a busy few months for utility providers in central Indiana. With the recent snowstorms, residents bills have gone up but utility workers have been working hard to help residents save energy and restore any lost power.

Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Duke Energy, Hendricks Power, and Citizens Energy Group have been busy with all of the snow and ice.

January has been a busy month in terms of experiencing extreme temperatures and high winds that left 65,000 of our customers in one of the biggest outages weve had in a long time, Brandi Davis-Handy, director of external communications said. We have had all hands on deck, fully staffed. Weve had linemen working around the clock, doing 16-hour shifts to restore this.

On the big storm from Jan. 5 through 9, IPL had 516 people working around the clock to get customers power restored. Out of those, 330 were employees coming from outside of IPL, such as utility providers from Illinois and Tennessee.

IPL services all of Indianapolis, Carmel and some of Hendricks County.

Duke Energy of Indiana set an all-time mark for winter power use across communities.

The month of January has delivered record cold temperatures across communities served by Duke Energy, Doug Esamann, president of Duke Energy Indiana, said. When temperatures dip especially to historic lows bills are higher. Its important for customers to remember simple steps they can take to save money on their power bills and heat their homes and businesses efficiently.

The company continues to suggest ways to save energy and money on power bills during colder weather.

The thermostat is a real culprit of higher winter bills. To help save energy and money, select the lowest comfortable setting when home, and bump the thermostat down a degree or two when leaving.

During sunny days, leave drapes or blinds open to allow the suns rays to warm the house.

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Utility providers keeping busy this winter