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Apology? Alexandria City Council wants restitution from Dominion Energy for ‘Art On The Avenue’ power outage

The Alexandria City Council wants more than answers from Dominion Energy for a recent power outage on the busiest day of the year in Del Ray — they want restitution.

After a 2020 hiatus, the weather was perfect for Art On The Avenue on October 2 along Mount Vernon Avenue. But a 16-hour power outage that morning ended up shuttering many businesses throughout the festival, which brought an estimated 50,000 visitors to Del Ray.

“We couldn’t believe what happened,” Alexandria City Councilwoman Amy Jackson told three Dominion representatives at Tuesday night’s Council meeting. “Honestly, there was no reason for it. There wasn’t any wind, there wasn’t any rain, there wasn’t anything like an act-of-God scenario… Is there anything that you’re doing for those businesses aside from (saying), ‘We’re so sorry, we’ll do better next time,’ because they’re so sick of that, I can tell you.”

Robert Wright, Dominion’s director of grid planning and asset management, told Council that a “perfect storm” of underground switch and cable equipment failure was to blame. Wright also presented Council with a map of current and future spot improvement projects that Dominion is working on throughout the city.

“I completely understand the frustration with customers,” Wright said. “A 16+ hour outage on what sounds like one of the busiest, or most important days of the year.”

Alexandria Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker said that Dominion “raked in” $1 billion in excess profits between 2017 and 2021, and that it would be “cruel and shameful” if the utility giant does not compensate the affected businesses for their losses. Also, earlier this month, Dominion reached a settlement agreement with the Virginia Attorney General to refund $330 million to customers for outages and reduce rates by $50 million throughout the state.

“I think our restaurants are struggling, our businesses are struggling,” Bennett-Parker said. “I think to not do something would be cruel and shameful, in addition to obviously this additional work that we need.”

Joe Woomer, Dominion’s vice president of grid and technical solutions, said that no impacted businesses have been contacted and that such issues should be sent to Dominion’s Claims department.

“We have not had an outreach to the residents out there,” Woomer said.

Councilman John Taylor Chapman recommended that Dominion establish a way to reach out to affected businesses after widespread outages.

“I think it would help the business owners in particular,” Chapman said, “…and helping them pick up the pieces after they’ve had huge power outages.”

At the meeting, Dominion provided two maps of areas throughout the city that are planned for tech upgrades and equipment replacements over the next several years. Wright said that multiple projects to improve service have been in the works throughout sections of the city since last year, prompting Chapman to note that it was only just before the meeting that City staff were presented with the maps for the projects.

“I’m just amazed that today is the first day anybody from the city is seeing this,” Chapman said.

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Councilman Canek Aguirre said it was concerning that no work is outlined for the Chirilagua (Arlandria) and Beverly Hills neighborhoods.

“You guys got nothing going on down in Chirilagua,” Aguirre said. “We want to make sure that we’re paying attention to… that section of Beverly Hills, which is just south of West Glebe (Road) because on both maps, there’s a strong section there that’s kind of missing.”

Wright that there has been an “increase in expectations” from Dominion customers in recent years.

“We’ve seen an increase in expectations in recent years,” Wright told Council. “If you think about the shift to more technologies, even during the pandemic, teleworking and remote learning have pushed reliable electric service to the forefront.”

Wright said that Dominion is inspecting its underground equipment, identifying needed equipment upgrades, and also “applying the lessons learned with that experience of equipment failure and our findings during inspections to make decisions about our broader population of equipment when we need to take action to maintain reliable service.”

Mayor Justin Wilson has been critical of Dominion for several years, and wants the utility to invest more money toward Alexandria.

“Money makes sense to me,” he said. “You’re able to tell me that you invested $39 million last year (in reliability upgrades throughout Alexandria). If you come to me and you say, ‘Hey, next year we’re gonna invest $60 million,’ That would mean something to me. That would be important.”

Earlier this month, Wilson voiced his disapproval on how city residents “have been adversely impacted by Dominion’s declining reliability in recent years,” in a meeting with the State Corporation Commission. Wilson asked that the Commission consider a downward performance adjustment to Dominion’s authorized return on equity.

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Alexandria considers options after local businesses crushed by ‘Art On The Avenue’ power outage

The power went out on the busiest day of the year in Del Ray on Saturday (October 2).

An estimated 50,000 people descended on Mount Vernon Avenue for the 26th annual Art On The Avenue festival that day, but many restaurants and other businesses were forced to shut down due to the outage.

Homegrown Restaurant Group’s Pork Barrel BBQ Restaurant, The Sushi Bar, and Holy Cow Del Ray lost a combined $30,000 in sales, co-owner Bill Blackburn told ALXnow.

“It was disappointing,” Blackburn said. “It was a lot of work for nothing.”

Dominion Energy reported that the outage was due to underground switch and cable equipment failure, and eventually restored power at around 10:30 p.m. — after the event was over.

Mayor Justin Wilson says the city is now considering a “variety” of options to improve service.

“We are exploring a variety of options to improve the reliability of Alexandria’s electricity service,” Wilson said. “We continue to believe that Dominion can and should do more to build a more reliable and resilient infrastructure to serve the City.”

Wilson did not get specific on the options, and said that the City will release more information this week. During the outage, he tweeted out a strongly worded post, and said it was unacceptable that a central business district was plunged in darkness.

Blackburn said business was strong the following day, on Sunday, with support mainly coming from local customers.

“Once again, we are lucky to do business in such a great community,” he said.

The Dairy Godmother, on Facebook, said that it lost “400 kolaches and 1,500 donuts… due to the power outage.”

“We are so sorry we were closed,” the shop wrote. “We have the greatest staff in the greatest neighborhood with the worst power company (except for Texas), we will open at 9AM with Just Fine Donuts, today we have Pumpkin Cake donuts, plus all of our usual flavors of yeast and cake donuts. With luck by 10 we will have Sausage Cheese Kalaches. Custard by Noon with Pumpkin as the Flavor of the Day, Apple Crisp is the Treat of the day.”

Alexandria also sent a letter to Dominion asking them to step up their game earlier this year. There were 16 large-scale outages in 2020 affecting thousands of residents.

The following businesses lost power, according to Visit Del Ray:

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Art On The Avenue festival continues despite Del Ray power outage

A power outage in Del Ray has shut down a number of businesses, although the annual Art on the Avenue festival today (October 2) is still happening. The event is one of the biggest events in the city and draws tens of thousands of people.

“We have a right to expect more from @DominionEnergy,” tweeted Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson. “Plunging a central business district into darkness for the better part of their biggest day of the year, with no inclement weather, is UNACCEPTABLE.”

The Alexandria Health Department has shut down a number of businesses due to the outage, although most of the art vendors don’t need power to operate along Mount Vernon Avenue. The Del Ray Business Association’s set-up team was out at 5 a.m. working in the dark.

“For some of those businesses this is literally the busiest day of the year,” said Del Ray Business Association Board member Gayle Reuter. “Restaurant staff are just waiting there with all the food they bought, and it’s very frustrating. But the festival is unbelievable. It’s one of the biggest crowds I’ve seen. It’s just really sad for local businesses without power. They’re the ones who have been hurting.”

The festival ends at 6 p.m.

Via Dominion Energy

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Key Towers Apartments likely to reopen five days after power outage

After an underground electrical malfunction caused an early morning power outage on Monday, July 12, the management of the 17-story Key Towers Apartments says the building is likely to reopen at the earliest on Friday, July 17.

Until then, residents in the 140-unit Landmark area building have to find alternate accommodations, and its owner is advising residents to keep their receipts.

“Right now we’re testing the transformers in every individual unit,” said Gina Ramos, general manager for the property. “We let residents in and out of their apartment four-at-a-time on Monday and Tuesday until 10 p.m. We’re telling everyone to keep their receipts.”

The 1960s-era building is empty, Alexandria Fire Department Senior Public Information Officer Raytevia Evans told ALXnow.

Resident Adie Ballantyne has lived at Key Towers for two years, and is staying with friends in a nearby apartment building.

“I’m going to demand a reduction in my rent next month,” she said. “I feel bad for my neighbors who got put out. Luckily I have friends who live close by.”

Dominion Energy determined that a privately owned underground transmission line went down. The outage occurred during a heat wave, and the city opened the Patrick Henry Recreation Center for residents.

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West End high-rise apartment building evacuated after power outage

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An electrical malfunction has prompted the required evacuation of a 17-story apartment building in the West End.

The power went out at Key Towers at 6060 Tower Court shortly before 5 a.m., and the city’s DASH bus service is helping transport evacuated residents to a cooling center at Patrick Henry Recreation Center, which is just over two miles away. There are 140 units in the 1960s-era building and Monday’s temperature is expected to reach the mid-90s.

“Evacuation is required and is being ordered by the Fire Marshal’s Office,” AFD Senior Public Information Officer Raytevia Evans told ALXnow. “Dominion Energy is on-scene now, and they have been for a while along with us. The building has been evacuated because the power had to be cut in order to make those repairs on what they’ve discovered.”

Dominion determined that a privately owned underground transmission line went down, Evans said.

“The property managers have their private contractors on scene as well,” Evans said, adding that that the city’s Office of Emergency Management is working with the property manager to inform residents that the building will be without power for “a while”.

Courtesy Google Maps

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Power Outage Covers Potomac Yard and Parts of Del Ray

Updated 1 p.m. — The Dominion Energy outage map shows the situation at Potomac Yard has been resolved

Earlier: Dominion Energy is reporting a large power outage enveloping Potomac Yard and crossing into the Del Ray and Braddock neighborhoods, leaving 3,570 customers without power.

According to the outage map, crews have been dispatched to the scene but power restoration could be anywhere between 12-5 p.m. The cause of the outage is currently unknown, though there are also power outages throughout the area after last night’s storms.

Some Alexandrians on Twitter said they experienced periodic power outages throughout the morning, waking up with reset clocks or fridges full of spoiling food.

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Map via Dominion Energy

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UPDATED: Wayward crow behind Potomac and Del Ray power outage this morning

Power outage on March 10 (photo via Dominion Energy)

(Updated 9:30 a.m.) Another day, another massive power outage in Alexandria. This time, there’s a corvid to blame.

There were around 4,251 residents in a stretch of Alexandria from the Braddock neighborhood up to Potomac Yard and Lynhaven without power this morning, according to Dominion Energy’s power outage map, though as of 9:20 a.m. the largest outage has been restored.

The cause for the outage is listed as “circuit out.” Dominion Energy spokesperson Peggy Fox said on social media that an investigation found a crow flew into a critical power line.

There was a second, overlapping outage in Arlandria, with another 489 customers without power, though as of 9:30 a.m. that seems to have been fixed too. The last remaining outage from this morning was at the southern end of Del Ray with 175 customers without power.

Del Ray was hit with a large power outage two days ago. Another in the Arlandria/Parkfairfax neighborhood last week affected 3,000 residents.

Alexandria had suffered repeated large-scale outages in recent years, including one infamous outage in 2021 that ruined the 2021 Art On The Avenue festival for many businesses in Del Ray.

Around this time last year, Dominion leadership spoke to Alexandria’s City Council and promised to invest $17 million into the utility company’s infrastructure in Alexandria to improve reliability. Some city leaders pushed for Dominion to underground more power lines — keeping them away from crows, just as an example — but Dominion leadership said the price of undergrounding across Alexandria was too “outlandish.”

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JUST IN: Arlandria/Parkfairfax hit with power outage with over 3,000 residents affected

Arlandria and Parkfairfax outage (image via Dominion Energy)

Alexandria has just been hit with an outage that’s knocked out power to a large swath of the city’s Arlandria and Parkfairfax neighborhoods.

According to the Dominion Energy website, 3,240 residents are without power in Arlandria west of Mount Vernon Avenue, as well as Parkfairfax and parts of North Ridge and Shirlington.

The outage was reported around noon and the website lists the time of restoration as sometime between 4-7 p.m., though those estimates can sometimes be conservative.

The Dominion website said the outage was caused by an equipment problem and, as of 1 p.m., crews were assessing the damage.

Dominion has faced a public lashing from city leadership in the past over repeated outages. Last year, Dominion Energy said it would invest millions in preventing future Alexandria outages, though Dominion leadership also said undergrounding was not a cost-effective option city-wide.

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JUST IN: More than 1,600 without power around Seminary Hill and Taylor Run

Power outages in central Alexandria (image via Dominion Energy)

There are around 1,629 Alexandrians without power after this morning’s storms.

Most of those outages are in the city’s central Seminary Hill and Taylor Run neighborhoods.

There are 943 residents affected by the Seminary Hill outage and 608 in Taylor Run. There are other smaller outages throughout Old Town. The Dominion Energy website said crews are assessing the damage.

Alexandria isn’t alone, neighboring Arlington is starting to see significant outages as well.

Dominion’s outage map is available online.

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Postponed by Hurricane Ian, Art On The Avenue is back November 12

Art On The Avenue in Del Ray (file photo)

A 60% chance of rain might dampen this Saturday’s Art On The Avenue festival in Del Ray, but at least it’s not a hurricane.

Art On The Avenue was supposed to be held on Saturday, October 1, but was postponed due as the remnants of Hurricane Ian battered the East Coast. It was a good decision, since the entire weekend ended up being cold, wet and dreary in Alexandria.

“Postponing an event like this is very difficult,” said festival organizer Pat Miller. “We lost a few artists and we gained a few artists. The food is the same, some of the programming is a little different, but none of the musical acts dropped out.”

Art On The Avenue is historically the biggest day of the year in Del Ray, drawing tens of thousands to Mount Vernon Avenue to check out art from more than 350 artists.

Postponing the event also put some local restaurants in a bind. Del Ray Pizzeria made too much dough, and later sold out after making an appeal to its customers.

The event will not likely be postponed again, in the event of bad weather, Miller said.

“It gets to bee too cold,” Miller said. “That’s tough for a lot of artists and it’s tough for their art.”

The 2020 festival was virtual due to the pandemic, and last year’s event had perfect weather, but an unforced power outage prompted businesses along Mount Vernon Avenue to be shut down.

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