Westar Energy crews are heading east to help E.ON U.S. with power restoration from outages caused by intense winds as remnants of Hurricane Ike pushed through the state.

E. ON U.S., based out of Louisville, Ky., owns and operates Louisville Gas and Electric Company (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities Company (KU). Remnants of Ike caused power outages to approximately 75 percent of LG&E's service territory. As of early this morning, 159,000 LG&E customers and 12,000 KU customers remain without electricity.

About 44 Westar employees, including linemen, management, field supervisors, a safety coordinator, fleet support and material handlers left this morning from the Kansas City area. Westar crews will begin assisting with restoring rural circuits near Greenville, Ky.

Westar crews that left on September 15 to assist with power restoration in Louisiana are now assisting with restoration efforts in Texas.

In addition to the Westar crews, Westar contractors sent 111 distribution linemen plus support personnel to Louisiana on September 1 after Hurricane Gustav. More than 232 tree trimming contractor employees that normally work on Westar's system were released September 2 to assist. Most of those contractor crews are assisting with efforts in Texas.

Tags: E.ON, Westar Energy