Pepco’s Preparing for the Storm! Are You?

First and foremost, Happy New Year!

Now, down to the matter at hand…

According to the National Weather Service, Pepco’s service territory is under a Winter Weather Advisory.  By definition, that means that “a low pressure system produces a combination of winter weather (snow, freezing rain, sleet, etc.) that present a hazard, but does not meet warning criteria.”

What that could mean is outages.  Neither Pepco nor our customers want them, but sometimes they’re unavoidable.  We’re working hard to either avoid or decrease the length of them.

As a part of our Reliability Enhancement Plan, vegetation management will play a major role in the decrease of tree related outages.  Our tree crews and foresters have been working 50-60 hour weeks since the monumental July and August storms to accomplish just that.

Aside from aggressive tree trimming, the top three measures Pepco is taking to avoid or decrease the length of outages are the following:

1. Bringing in extra crews through tonight and tomorrow morning to restore power safely and quickly
2. Equipping vehicles with chains to safely respond to outage calls
3. Coordinating restoration efforts with emergency management personnel and local government officials

Though Pepco is preparing, customers should prepare as well.  The seven things customers can do to prepare are the following:

1. Call 1-877-Pepco-62 (1-877-737-2662) to report outages and downed power lines
2. Treat all downed power lines as live and stay away
3. Assemble an emergency storm kit including
   • a battery-powered radio or television
   • flashlight
   • first-aid kit
   • battery-powered or windup clock
   • extra batteries
   • non-perishable food
   • manual can opener
   • bottled water
   • any necessary medications and
   • a list of emergency phone numbers
4. Maintain a supply of extra blankets.
5. Ensure that all household members have a warm coat, gloves, hat and water-resistant boots.
6. Make sure your home has a telephone with a cord or cell phone to use as a backup.
7. Identify a place for emergency shelter in case of an extended outage.

Note: It is important that customers with special needs or their caregivers take responsibility to make arrangements ahead of time to prepare for potentially long-lasting service interruptions.

In the event of an outage, our primary focus is public health and safety closely followed by restoring the largest number of customers as quickly and safely as possible.  Here’s our six-point restoration process:

• Public health and safety
  • Downed live wires or potentially life-threatening situations and public health and safety facilities without power
• Transmission lines serving thousands of customers
• Substation equipment
• Main distribution lines serving large numbers of customers
• Secondary lines serving neighborhoods
• Service lines to individual homes and businesses

If interested in additional outage and emergency preparedness information, be sure to visit our website.

‘Til the next post,

Andre