Jeannette M. Mills VP, Customer Operations & Chief Customer Officer
Today
more utility crews were dispatched to area neighborhoods as repairs to the major electric feeder lines and substations have been completed. Crews are working in almost 90 separate communities in eight counties and Baltimore City. With more than one-half million customers restored, BGE is intently focused on restoring power to the remaining 25 percent of customers who lost service as a result of the weekend’s severe storms.
More than 3,500 utility workers are participating in the service restoration process with many of the field personnel operating in “pods” of vehicles with specialized crews able to jointly address repairs that require different skills, equipment and materials. Each crew begins its work as soon as the crew before has completed its part of the job, resulting in the most efficient approach to restoration.
A number of factors continue to prolong the restoration. Tree crews are still tackling the time consuming process of removing whole trees and debris from lines – a task that must be completed before work can begin to fix damaged electric equipment. Additionally, as BGE continues to resolve the jobs that restore the largest numbers of customers to service, the remaining repairs bring progressively smaller pockets of customers back online, even as the work to make the repairs is comparable. As we work on these more localized pieces of equipment, BGE does factor in customers that have been without power for the longest duration, with restoration taking place in a balanced fashion to ensure field personnel are addressing outages in each and every county and city where BGE has customers.
Thousands of separate repair jobs remain, with each impacting multiple customers. More than 4,500 downed wires have been reported among the more than one million calls BGE’s contact center has handled so far. Customers should exercise extreme caution around downed wires and assum
e that every wire is energized and dangerous. Downed wires can be reported to 1.877.778.2222. Only qualified BGE personnel or contractors are authorized to work on or near power lines. Where possible, BGE posts personnel to cordon off downed wires and keep the area clear until the wire can be repaired.
Crews continue to work in around-the-clock shifts to restore power as safely and quickly as possible. There remains a chance for severe thunderstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday over the eastern United States, with high humidity and hot temperatures feeding potential storms. We encourage customers with power to prepare for possible additional outages. You can find advice on preparing for outages at
BGE’s online storm center.
