Winter is Coming; Atlantic City Electric is Ready, and Encourages Customers to Take Essential Steps to be Prepared

MAYS LANDING – Atlantic City Electric has taken essential steps to prepare its system and drill critical processes and procedures all to provide safe and reliable service through the winter. During the past few months, the company has completed hundreds of tasks including inspecting and enhancing existing equipment, installing new smart equipment to help reduce outages and performing necessary tree trimming.
“Seasonal readiness work is essential in enhancing our energy grid and reducing the potential for service interruptions caused by stormy weather,” said Vince Maione, Atlantic City Electric region president. “We plan to continue to make investments over the next several years to upgrade and modernize our electric infrastructure as well as trimming trees and other preventative maintenance work to further improve service reliability for our customers.”
Over the past five years, Atlantic City Electric has invested about $800 million to modernize and enhance its electric system for its customers. This work has resulted in fewer power outages. And if outages did occur, they were restored faster than before.
Atlantic City Electric also conducts emergency response drills and completes testing of computer and emergency systems as part of its winter preparedness program. Employees from across the company, including those who work in the field and those who provide back-office support, review and drill emergency processes and procedures to help ensure safe and efficient response to storms or emergencies.
As part of the Exelon family of companies, Atlantic City Electric also shares best practices with its sister utilities – Delmarva Power, BGE, ComEd, PECO and Pepco – and participates in collaborative emergency response training exercises to ensure the company can provide seamless support and resources to another Exelon utility during storm or emergency restoration efforts.
The mutual assistance strength within the Exelon family was evident during winter storm Stella in March 2017. Atlantic City Electric mobilized about 1,000 personnel, including nearly 500 line and field support personnel. Approximately 125 line personnel from PECO in Philadelphia assisted in the restoration effort. In addition, crews from BGE in Baltimore and ComEd in Chicago were on standby if needed. During that event, power was restored to 95 percent of the 31,500 customers who lost service within 24 hours after the storm passed.
Just as Atlantic City Electric prepares for winter, we encourage our customers also to be ready.
Atlantic City Electric customers should:
• Assemble an emergency storm kit. Include a battery-powered radio or television, flashlight, a first-aid kit, battery-powered or windup clock, extra batteries, special-needs items, an insulated cooler and a list of important and emergency phone numbers.
• Keep at least a three-day supply of nonperishable food and bottled water and have a hand-operated can opener available.
• Protect your electronic equipment.
• Plug computers and other sensitive equipment into surge suppressors, and consider a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for temporary battery backup power.
• Identify a safe alternate location in case of an extended outage.
• Tune to local news broadcasts for the latest weather and emergency information.
• Follow the advice of local emergency management officials.
• If candles and heaters are used, never leave them unattended, watch children and pets who could knock them over.
• Never operate a generator indoors.
For more information about Atlantic City Electric, visit atlanticcityelectric.com.