Just under 220,000 Mass. customers still without power

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

There were 218,000 Massachusetts electricity customers without power as of just after noon today, down from 480,000 last night, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said today.

The state’s two largest utilities, NStar and National Grid, also reported progress in restoring power in the aftermath of damage inflicted by Tropical Storm Irene.

Earlier this morning, NStar said that 84,000 of its customers remained without power, down from 200,000 yesterday afternoon.

For NStar, the remaining outages were concentrated on the South Shore, Cape Cod, and in the suburbs west of Boston, according to a recording on on the company’s hotline. There are roughly 25,000 customers without power on the South Shore, 16,000 on the Cape, 15,000 in Boston’s western suburbs, and 9,000 in and around Walpole, NStar said.

There were 165,000 National Grid electricity customers still without power this morning, down from 325,000 yesterday and down from a peak of 500,000 on Sunday, National Grid said. The remaining outages are scattered across the state, National Grid said.

Utility companies said in today's Globe story that more than 500,000 Massachusetts customers were without power as of yesterday. They warned that it could take days before all those customers have power restored.

A National Grid spokeswoman reiterated this morning that it still may take until the weekend before all its Massachusetts customers will once again have electricity.