An army of Pepco and local contract crews augmented by outside utility reinforcements have restored three out of every four outages from Friday’s violent storm that left more than 443,000 customers without service at peak.
Through the evening and overnight Monday, Pepco restored about 90,000 additional customers. The jurisdictional breakdown of those restored overnight is as follows:
· District of Columbia – 26,000 additional customers restored
· Montgomery County – 42,000 additional customers restored
· Prince George’s County – 22,000 additional customers restored
Pepco expects the vast majority of customers without power to have electrical service by 11 p.m., Friday. Tomorrow evening, Pepco will update Estimated Time of Restoration (ETRs) for customers who still may have no power after Friday night. Customers should check their ETRs, because some have been updated as work was assigned today.
Additional mutual assistance crews continue to join forces with Pepco linemen to restore power in the Washington region. Hydro One crews from Canada are in place, and crews also are on their way today from Progress Energy in Florida. Pepco’s sister utility, Delmarva Power, is sending field crews once restoration efforts are completed in its service area.
Today, Pepco continues its all-out focus on restoring critical care facilities. All facilities have been assigned crews to work their individual outages. All hospitals were restored Sunday.
Also, field restoration crews have focused on restoring tripped feeders, which are large electric lines that distribute power to up to 1,100 customers within a specific geographic area. At peak, Pepco had about 290 distribution feeders completely out of service. As of this morning, 270 of those have at least partial service.
The company has mobilized about 3,000 personnel mobilized for the restoration effort.
· About 1,830 field restoration personnel including:
o 700 power line personnel from out of state;
o 450 tree trimming personnel;
o 400 overhead line contractors;
o 122 internal Pepco line crew members; and
o 160 internal underground and substation personnel.
· In addition, about 340 personnel are mobilized to answer customer calls and about 830 personnel are supporting the restoration effort in other roles.
Pepco reminds customers that if they see crews who are not actively engage in restoring power, the crews are either:
o Waiting for electrical equipment to be de-energized or energized before working or moving on to the next job,
o Waiting for materials to arrive that were requested after surveying onsite damage, or
o Reviewing orders for the next assignment.
"I want to thank our customers for their patience during these trying conditions," said Thomas H. Graham, Pepco Region President. "I understand the inconvenience of not having power for an extended period of time, and our employees empathize with customer frustration. I want to assure customers that we will continue working nonstop until everyone is back on."
Customers Asked to Report Power Outages
Customers’ reports are vital to Pepco’s restoration efforts. Customers are asked to report outages at pepco.com or by calling 1-877-737-2662 and following the prompts on the automated system. If reporting an emergency or another life-threatening situation such as downed wires, customers should immediately call 1-877-737-2662 and follow the appropriate prompts.
Pepco also recommends, when reporting an outage, customers request a call-back. Call-backs allow Pepco to notify customers when work in their area is completed. However, although area work has been completed, not every customer may have been restored, if further damage is located on equipment directly serving a customer’s home. The call-backs help the utility to locate outages that are specific to customers’ homes and still need to be addressed.
To keep up to date, customers are encouraged to visit www.pepco.com, follow them on Facebook and Twitter at PepcoConnect and download their mobile app at www.pepco.com/mobileapp.
Pepco Encourages Safety Precautions
After severe storms, Pepco urges customers to take safety precautions. Our safety tips include:
· Stay away from downed wires. Call 1-877-737-2662 and follow the prompts to report a downed wire or an outage.
· Avoid crews working in the street. This will keep you and the crews safe, and allow them to work on restoring your power.
· Visit pepco.com for safety tips and follow the advice of your local emergency management officials.
· If you plan to use a portable generator, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and use only when necessary. Don’t overload it and turn it off at night, while you sleep and when you are away from home.
· Locate a portable generator in a well-ventilated area. Never run it inside, even in your garage, to avoid the potential hazard of carbon monoxide. Do not connect the generator directly into your home’s main fuse box or circuit panel.
· Protect food and refrigerated medicine with regular ice in an insulated cooler. If you are without power for more than two hours, refrigerated foods should be placed in a cooler. Foods will stay frozen for 36 to 48 hours in a fully loaded freezer if the door remains closed, and a half-full freezer will generally keep frozen food for up to 24 hours.
· Turn off power to flood-prone basement appliances if it is safe to do so. However, if you have an electrically operated sump pump, you should not turn off the power in your basement.
· Tune in to local news broadcasts for the latest weather and emergency information.
No comments:
Post a Comment