January 09, 2008

Bangor Hydro Electric Company Anticipates Outages Due to Strong Winds

Bangor, ME--Bangor Hydro Electric Company is monitoring weather conditions closely and is prepared for the likelihood of outages tonight due to heavy winds, especially along the coast. Additional crews are on stand-by in Hancock and Washington Counties, where wind gusts are expected to reach up to 50 miles per hour. br>

Bangor Hydro urges customers to be ready for possible outages by locating flashlights with working batteries, keeping a battery-operated radio available with fresh batteries, making sure you have a supply of fresh water if you aren't connected to a public water supply, making sure you have some non-perishable food on hand, and making sure secondary heating sources are in good working order.

When outages occur, Bangor Hydro's goal is to restore power to all customers as quickly as possible. Crews will assess the damage to the system and restore large transmission lines first followed by substations. Distribution lines are cleared starting closest to the substation and working to the end of each line. By following the flow of power through the system, we can restore service to the greatest number of customers most efficiently. During this process, we also focus on restoring service to emergency and communications services.

Customers may call Bangor Hydro's Service Center to report a power outage, downed line or other power emergency at 1-800-440-1111. Updated outage information is available at www.bhe.com.

Bangor Hydro-Electric Company (BHE) is an electric utility wholly-owned by Emera Inc. BHE serves a population of 192,000 in an area encompassing 5,275 square miles in eastern and east coastal Maine. BHE is a member of the New England Power Pool and is interconnected with other New England utilities to the south and with the New Brunswick Power Corp. to the north. Visit us at www.bhe.com.

Emera Inc. (EMA-TSX) is an energy and services company with $4.0 billion in assets. Electricity is Emera's core business. The company has two wholly-owned regulated electric utility subsidiaries, Nova Scotia Power Inc. and Bangor Hydro-Electric Company, which together serve 590,000 customers. Emera's other investments include a joint venture interest in Bear Swamp, a 600 megawatt pumped storage hydro-electric facility in northern Massachusetts; a 12.9% interest in the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline ; and Emera Energy Services which manages energy assets on behalf of third parties and provides related services. Visit Emera on the web at www.emera.com.