With its service area largely spared by the ice damage from last week's storm, NSTAR was making preparations to assist other New England utilities in their efforts to restore power to hundreds-of-thousands of electric customers affected elsewhere in the region.

“NSTAR workers are no strangers to helping our neighbors in need,” said Tom May, NSTAR chairman, president and CEO. “We’re prepared to assist with the devastation to our north and west just as soon as we’ve completed our restoration work locally.”

As of 2 p.m. Friday, there were less than 1,500 NSTAR customers without power scattered across central and eastern Massachusetts. It’s expected that power was to be restored to all customers directly affected by the storm by the end of the day. NSTAR crews then traveled to other parts of the state and up to New Hampshire beginning early Saturday morning. Once in place they were prepared to help their fellow lineworkers for as long as needed and may be joined, if necessary, by additional NSTAR crews.

In recent years, NSTAR lineworkers have helped to rebuild entire electric systems after hurricanes ripped through Florida, Alabama and Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, crews traveled to Maine to repair damage caused by a severe winter storm.