Travellers along some of Alexandria’s arterial streets might see things in a different light now.
Transportation and Environmental Services has been working with Dominion Energy to swap out the city’s street lamps with LED lights. So far, the city said around 40% of the city’s streetlights have been swapped.
“As of October 2021, many arterial streets have been successfully retrofitted, including Van Dorn Street, Eisenhower Avenue, Duke Street, Washington Street, and N. Quaker Lane,” the city said. “In addition, all of the fixtures in the Cameron Station neighborhood and the Carlyle area have been transitioned to LED.”
The next phase of the project will involve continuing retrofits on main streets, like Route 1, King Street, Braddock Road and Glebe Road. The city said the transition to residential neighborhoods is likely to start in early 2022 once the lights on the arterial and collector streets have been changed. The project is expected to be completely finished in around 12-18 months.
The city said the new LED lights are brighter than existing streetlights, last five times longer and reduce energy consumption by 90%.
T&ES' Traffic Operations & Dominion Energy have been retrofitting the City's streetlamps with LED lights. To date, over 4,000 (~40%) of the streetlights are now LED. The remaining are slated to be retrofitted over the next 12 to 18 months. More info >>> https://t.co/SGv8v5x9an. pic.twitter.com/3xmPyhfovp
— Alexandria T&ES (@AlexandriaVATES) November 29, 2021
Via City of Alexandria
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.
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.
I will say it again:
We have a right to expect more from @DominionEnergy
Plunging a central business district into darkness for the better part of their biggest day of the year, with no inclement weather, is UNACCEPTABLE.https://t.co/3rxX316pZS
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) October 2, 2021
A power outage on Saturday set off a week of concerns about city infrastructure, even as the city was ranked one of the best small cities in the country.
The power outage that derailed the Art on the Avenue celebration is just the latest in a long chain of outages that have hit Alexandria over the last year, giving the lie to Dominion Energy’s claim that a large outage almost exactly a year ago was a fluke. Mayor Justin Wilson has previously called the state of frequent outages unacceptable and urged Dominion to do more to upgrade its infrastructure.
Power outages are just one of the infrastructure issues Alexandria is grappling with. This week the state also announced it would be funding some flooding mitigation work in Alexandria, while some in city leadership are hesitant about the price tag for some specific waterfront flood prevention plans.
Top stories
- Alexandria considers options after local businesses crushed by ‘Art On The Avenue’ power outage
- BREAKING: A bunch of student fights were recorded at George Washington Middle School and put on Instagram
- Alexandria ranked third-best small city in America in Condé Nast survey
- Updated: Alexandria City High School no longer on lockdown after student arrested with gun outside school
- Art On The Avenue festival continues despite Del Ray power outage
- JUST IN: Principal at Alexandria City High School addresses in-school violence and re-socialization pressure
- Four more COVID-related deaths in Alexandria, City preps vaccine rollout for kids under 12
- Planning Commission endorses King Street closure despite concerns Prince Street could inherit trouble
- Convicted felon arrested for gun possession after claiming to be shot in head in West End
- Former doctor’s office aide accused of computer trespassing after getting fired in Alexandria
Photo via Dominion Energy/Facebook
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:
Its a beautiful day… but unfortunately… we have a difficult outage in Alexandria. We apologize & appreciate your understanding.
Here’s what happened & what @DominionEnergy is doing to restore power as quickly & safely as possible: https://t.co/nGN8oEw1Gf
— Peggy Fox (@PeggyDomEnergy) October 2, 2021
Yesterday Del Ray enjoyed an incredible return to Art on the Avenue. However, due to the power outage many restaurants on the Avenue had to close. They're back and need your support!
Check out @visitdelrayVA on Facebook for a list of restaurants & hours:https://t.co/RR10I3H3f3
— Del Ray Citizens (@DelRayCitizens) October 3, 2021
Please head down to Del Ray tonight and support the restaurants and retailers impacted by yesterday’s power outage, or else you’ll see more of @BillofDelRay on your television…
Consider yourself warned… pic.twitter.com/CVoMXJAZLZ
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) October 3, 2021
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.
I will say it again:
We have a right to expect more from @DominionEnergy
Plunging a central business district into darkness for the better part of their biggest day of the year, with no inclement weather, is UNACCEPTABLE.https://t.co/3rxX316pZS
— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) October 2, 2021
Updated at 12 a.m. Thousands of Alexandria residents are currently without power, as a thunderstorm continues to affect the city, according to Dominion Energy’s outage map.
There are more than 3,400 people without power in Old Town. There are also more than 150 residents without power in North Ridge due to a downed power pole, and more than 300 without power in Del Ray. Crews have been dispatched to impacted areas.
Alexandria and the surrounding area were hit by a thunderstorm at around 4:30 p.m.. A Hazardous Weather Outlook remains in effect until 10 p.m.
Update at 6:20 p.m. — Outages remain in Taylor Run, but the Arlandria outage has been fixed.
Several thousand Alexandrians are currently without power as a result of a “wall of wind.”
According to Dominion Energy, 2,915 customers are without power in Arlandria.
There are other scattered islands of power outage throughout the city, including 1,349 customers in Taylor Run without power. In the West End, 857 customers are without power near John Adams Elementary School.
There’s no indication yet when power could be restored.
From the National Weather Service:
BULLETIN – IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
Severe Thunderstorm Warning
National Weather Service Baltimore MD/Washington DC
439 PM EDT Fri Apr 30 2021The National Weather Service in Sterling Virginia has issued a
* Severe Thunderstorm Warning…
* Until 515 PM EDT.
* At 438 PM EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from Montgomery Village to near Chantilly to Warrenton, moving east at 65 mph.
HAZARD…60 mph wind gusts.
SOURCE…Radar indicated.
IMPACT…Damaging winds will cause some trees and large branches to fall. This could injure those outdoors, as well as damage homes and vehicles. Roadways may become blocked by downed trees. Localized power outages are possible. Unsecured light objects may become projectiles.
* Locations impacted include… Arlington, Alexandria, Germantown, Centreville, Waldorf, Dale City, Rockville, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Reston, Bowie, Severn, Annandale, Clinton, Olney, Springfield, College Park, Crofton, South Riding and Fort Washington.
People attending the FEMA Greenbelt Metro mass vaccination site should seek safe shelter immediately!
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
Image via Dominion Energy
Alexandrians are starting to get suspicious that the repeated power outages aren’t just the fluke that Dominion officials claim.
Old Town was hit with another power outage last week that left over 2,000 customers in the city’s southeast corner in the dark for hours. It was the latest in a series of outages over the last year.
Dominion officials told the City Council that the incidents were unique and unrelated to broader structural problems, but officials disagreed and Mayor Justin Wilson wrote a letter to Dominion formally requesting greater investment in reliable infrastructure.
Photo via Dominion Energy/Facebook
Update at 2:10 p.m. — Power has been restored for many customers in the area, with only around 80 now without power. An equipment problem was found to be the source of the outage.
Over 2,000 Dominion Energy customers in Old Town are currently without power.
An outage is currently impacting approximately 2,186 people in Old Town’s eastern and southernmost portions, Dominion said on its outage map.
The cause is still under investigation, but Dominion said that power could be out for the next few hours, with estimated restoration sometime between 1-4 p.m.
@DominionEnergy Power outage in South Old Town Alexandria. Flickered for 10 minutes and now is totally out.
— WindowlessOffice Growth Corp (@lipmanms) February 8, 2021
@DominionEnergy no power in #AlexandriaVA at 751 Thornton Way. Flickered intermittently before fully out. Reported outage online. Is this widespread or isolated?
— Nicolle Bradford (@NicolleBradford) February 8, 2021
The outage comes less than a month after Mayor Justin Wilson officially asked Dominion to invest in more reliability — makes Dominion’s claims that last year’s frequent outages were just flukes more unlikely.
Image via Dominion Energy
It was a cold and news-filled week in Alexandria.
It all started with the report of two public safety incidents over the weekend — a serious car crash in Old Town and another shooting in the West End.
On the coronavirus front, Alexandria is now at 104 fatalities and 9,342 cases. Mayor Justin Wilson said that there is a vaccine shortage in the city, as the waitlist to get inoculated is at more than 25,000. The Alexandria Health Department reported to the Alexandria Times that about 2,000 doses are being distributed weekly.
Our top story this week was on the body that was found last Friday in the water at Holmes Run Trail by Cameron Run Regional Park. In an update, police told us that the death was not suspicious in nature.
Additionally, 630 people responded to our weekly poll. This week, we asked about the proposed Heritage development in Old Town. About 67% of respondents don’t think it’s appropriate for the neighborhood and 33% don’t have a problem with it.
In case you missed it, here are some important stories:
- New Flood Warning Signs Installed in Del Ray
- Initial and Continued Unemployment Claims Go Down in Alexandria
- Despite COVID-19 Contractor Impacts, Potomac Yard Metro Station on Track for Spring 2022 Opening
- City Council Accepts Plan to Double Stormwater Utility Fees
- Victory Center’s Condominium Redevelopment Headed to Planning Commission
Here are our top stories of the week:
- BREAKING: Body Found in the Water Near Cameron Station
- Photos: The Regal Potomac Yard Movie Theater is Being Torn Down
- Citizens Group Vilifies Heritage High Rise Project in Old Town
- Atlantis Pizzeria and Family Restaurant Closing on Jan. 24
- Alexandrians with Joe Biden Yard Signs Get Anonymous Letters Saying Biden is a Pedophile
- Police: Shots Fired in West End, Car Crash in Old Town Over Weekend
- Snow in Alexandria: Winter Weather Advisory in Effect Until 9 A.M. Tuesday
- BREAKING: Woman Gets Arm Amputated, Police Investigate if She Was Thrown From Car in West End
- Local Business in Hot Water with City Architects After Unauthorized Paint Job
- Alexandria Mayor Formally Requests Dominion Energy Step Their Game Up
- JUST IN: ACPS Announces No In-Person Schooling For Week of Feb. 1
Have a safe weekend!
