BALTIMORE (Feb. 1, 2018) – In 2017, BGE customers experienced the lowest average number of electric outages and the fastest restoration of outages when they did occur in the company's history.

"The dedication of BGE's 3,200 employees, our investments in system modernization, and adopting best practices developed and shared by the Exelon utilities allowed us to deliver record reliability to our customers last year," said BGE President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Woerner. "We emphasize innovation in every aspect of our business, from the infrastructure to our maintenance and training programs. This helps us deliver the quality electric power that our customers expect and need in their daily lives."  

The average number of outages surpassed the previous low, set in 2014, by nearly 20 percent. When customers did experience an outage, BGE restored power an average of five minutes faster than the previous record, set in 2016. During the past 10 years, the number of electric outages has decreased 49 percent and outage length has been reduced by 41 percent.

The company is actively exploring innovative technologies that can improve system reliability. Examples include using drones to enable more efficient equipment inspections, installing specialized equipment that can automatically restore service or isolate damage, and providing storm restoration staff with mobile apps that help them get to jobs faster.

BGE invested approximately $1.1 billion in the company's electric system operations and maintenance and through infrastructure improvements during 2017. In total, the company has invested $8 billion in gas and electric infrastructure since 2002 and will invest $5.3 billion during the next five years.

The company continues to share best practices with its Exelon sister utilities, Atlantic City Electric, ComEd, Delmarva Power, PECO and Pepco, many of which also posted record reliability performances in 2017.  

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BGE, founded in 1816 as the nation's first gas utility and headquartered in Baltimore, is Maryland's largest natural gas and electric utility. The company's approximately 3,200 employees are committed to safe and reliable power delivery to more than 1.25 million electric customers and more than 650,000 natural gas customers in central Maryland, as well as enhanced energy management, conservation, environmental stewardship and community assistance. J.D. Power's 2017 Electric Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study(SM) ranked BGE highest in customer satisfaction with business electric service in the east among large utilities. The company also has an estimated annual economic impact of $5 billion of output in its service area, supporting more than 9,500 local jobs and producing $923 million in labor income. BGE is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), the nation's leading competitive energy provider. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, YouTube  and Flickr.