Efforts by Belco to restore power to tens of thousands of homes after Hurricane Fiona have been recognised with an award.

The Edison Electric Institute announced yesterday that Belco, one of its member companies, received an emergency response award.

Handed out twice a year, the prize recognises the hard work from electric companies after outages caused by extreme weather and other natural events.

On September 23, Hurricane Fiona passed 120 nautical miles south-west of Bermuda and left 83 per cent of Belco customers without power.

Sixty-six per cent of households affected had their power restored within 12 hours of the storm’s passing, and five days later all residents had electricity again.

Belco president Wayne Caines said that the company was honoured to receive the award, which highlights its employees’ hard work within difficult situations.

He added: “Hurricanes are always a challenging time for Belco but our team have well-established protocols for all aspects of preparing for and then restoring power once a storm has passed.

“On behalf of all our staff at Belco, I would like to thank EEI for their recognition of our efforts to restore power to our valued customers quickly and safely.”

EEI president Tom Kuhn said that the award was well deserved.

“Throughout the past six months, electric companies faced devastating hurricanes, unprecedented heatwaves and many other extreme-weather events that impacted the customers and communities we serve,” he said.

“I commend Belco’s commitment to restore service for its customers quickly and safely under challenging conditions.”