 BGE
Crews Restore Power to More Than 395,000 Customers affected by Powerful
Nor’easter
BALTIMORE
(March
4, 2018) – BGE is continuing
to restore electric service to customers affected by a powerful nor’easter that
began moving through central Maryland on Friday and continued to cause damage
to trees and power equipment through Saturday. More than 435,000 outages
occurred due to high sustained winds and gusts exceeding 70 miles per hour.
“We
continue to thank our customers for their patience and
understanding as our employees, joined by crews from other states and
Canada, work to fully restore service interrupted by this destructive storm,” said Rodney Oddoye, vice president of customer operations
and chief customer officer for BGE. “We understand the difficulties our
customers are facing and are working to safely restore power as
quickly as possible.”
Crews are working in around-the-clock shifts to restore service as
safely and quickly as possible. The vast majority of customers are
expected to be restored by tonight with final repairs to pockets of more
heavily damaged areas continuing into mid-week. Specific restoration times will
be available to customers through BGE’s outage reporting channels as damage
assessments are completed.
Power
is expected to be restored to all public schools within
BGE’s service area this evening.
While outages continue to decrease, much of the remaining work on
the system is extremely labor intensive and time consuming. Once completed,
these jobs are likely to restore service to smaller groups of customers at a
time – in many cases only a single customer.
Crews from BGE’s Exelon sister utility ComEd in Illinois, as well
as crews based in other states like Florida and Georgia have arrived and are
assisting in the restoration effort. Additional crews from the Midwest and
Canada will be arriving and will begin restoration work on Monday.
High winds limited the
operation of bucket trucks used for overhead repairs and damaged trees must be
removed from power lines before repairs can be completed, extending the
duration of power restorations.
BGE asks all customers, including those
with smart meters, to report their outage. Outages may be reported online at
BGE.com and via BGE’s free mobile app available at the Apple Store or Google Play.
Customers may also report outages and downed wires by calling 877-778-2222, on
BGE.com and through mobile devices. To sign up for email and text
notifications, visit BGE.com/alerts.
Customers
with special needs, such as those who may be elderly, disabled or dependent on
electricity for medical equipment, should have alternate arrangements in place
should they experience an extended power outage.
BGE's restoration priorities are public
safety and critical care facilities, such as 911 centers, hospitals and pumping
stations. Then restoration is generally scheduled so that the greatest
number of customers can be restored as quickly and as safely as possible.
However, in cases of extended power outages, consideration is also given to
customers who have been without service for the longest.
For additional information, contact:
Baltimore Gas & Electric Company (BGE)
BGE Media Hotline: 410.470.7433
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