Dive Brief:

• Eversource has almost completed restoration efforts following a major winter storm on Saturday that brought high winds and heavy snow, and left about 300,000 customers without power in its Massachusetts service territory. 
• More than 1,700 crews worked over the weekend to repair the damage, with some coming from Connecticut and New Hampshire to assist. As of Monday morning, the utility said about 400 customers remain offline but power should be restored by the end of the day.
• Eversource said most of the damage from the Nor'easter was concentrated on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, and along the South Shore and South Coast.

Dive Insight:

January has been a cold and sometimes snowy month, testing the resilience of utility grids multiple times along the U.S. East Coast.The year kicked off with a winter storm that left almost 1 million customers without power from New Jersey to Alabama. And with Texas facing a cold snap later this week, the strain on U.S. power systems may continue.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas warned state agencies it was rolling out an “aggressive grid management plan,” according to The Dallas Morning News, and could see demand near record levels as a cold front hits on Wednesday. The grid operator has been rushing to ensure power plants and transmission facilities are winterized, to avoid a repeat of last year's widespread outages.

Boston saw almost two feet of snow this weekend and on Saturday tied its single-day snowfall record according to the National Weather Service. Most of the outages from the most recent winter storm were concentrated in Massachusetts, but Eversource had prepared for the impact by arranging for additional crews to help restore power.

The utility worked quickly to bring power back online "despite dangerous conditions," Eversource Vice President for Electric Operations Bill Ritchie said in a statement. "We know how challenging it is for our customers to be without power, especially in this frigid weather."

The utility initially dispatched about 1,000 line and tree crews to restore power, and later upped that number to 1,700 with the arrival of out-of-state help. Eversource also said it has gas crews working to clear snow from critical infrastructure.