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Underground lines boost reliability for Dominion Energy customers
June 2, 2025
RICHMOND, VA — As the Atlantic hurricane season begins, Dominion Energy has finished burying more than 2,500 miles of the most outage-prone power lines in Virginia. Burying these lines significantly reduces power outages and restoration time during storms.
The work is part of the company’s Strategic Underground Program, which was launched in 2014. The program targets areas with the most outages from fallen trees, the leading cause of power outages in Virginia. The company plans to bury thousands more miles in the coming years.
The results so far are very positive. The average outage time for customers with buried lines has fallen from 11 hours to just two minutes. With fewer outages in these areas, crews can more quickly restore power for other customers. In many areas, average restoration time for all customers has been cut in half during major storms such as tropical storms and hurricanes.
“We’re focused on delivering more value for our customers every day,” said President of Utility Operations and Dominion Energy Virginia Ed Baine. “It’s personal for us because we know power is important for everything in our customers’ daily lives. We’ve made a lot of progress in the most outage-prone areas, and our customers are seeing real results. They’re experiencing fewer storm-related outages, and their power is being restored sooner. The results will continue getting better as we make more progress in the years to come.”
The company’s Mainfeeder Hardening program is further reducing storm-related power outages by replacing thousands of older utility poles and cross arms across the company’s system. Average outage time for customers served by hardened mainfeeder lines has fallen by 30%.
Since 2019, the program has replaced more than 8,000 utility poles and 9,500 cross arms along more than 265 miles of mainfeeder lines, with the goal of reaching 1,000 miles by 2030.
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