Crews Making Significant Progress

NEWARK, Del. - Delmarva Power continues to make significant progress restoring power to customers who lost service following Friday night's violent wind storm. Of the 84,000 customers who lost power, more than 60 percent- 54,000 customers-have been restored. Delmarva Power crews will be working through the weekend to restore power.
 
"There has been a significant amount of damage to our electrical system caused by uprooted trees and snapped poles. We will continue to work around the clock to restore power to these remaining customers," said Delmarva Power Region President Gary Stockbridge. "This has been a massive undertaking, and we will not let up until service to all our customers is restored."
   
This extensive restoration effort has enabled the company to exercise some of the capabilities of newly installed smart meter technology.  For example, Delmarva Power is pinging the smart meters to determine whether some customers' service is back on without having to inconvenience the customer, or dispatch a crew to the impacted location. Traditionally the utility has depended heavily on customers calling to report outages in deciding where to most efficiently dispatch crews. The Company also has traditionally telephoned customers to verify restorations.
   
As restoration work progresses, customers may receive more targeted estimated times of restoration (ETR).

Delmarva Power Encourages Safety Precautions
After severe storms, Delmarva Power urges customers to take safety precautions. Our safety tips include:

• Avoid crews working on restoration. This will keep you and the crews safe, and allow them to work on restoring your power.
• If you plan to use a portable generator, follow the manufacturer's instructions and use only when necessary. Don't overload it and turn it off at night, while you sleep and when you are away from home.
• Locate a portable generator in a well-ventilated area. Never run it inside, even in your garage, to avoid the potential hazard of carbon monoxide. Do not connect the generator directly into your home's main fuse box or circuit panel.
• Protect food and refrigerated medicine with regular ice in an insulated cooler. If you are without power for more than two hours, refrigerated foods should be placed in a cooler. Foods will stay frozen for 36 to 48 hours in a fully loaded freezer if the door remains closed, and a half-full freezer will generally keep frozen food for up to 24 hours.
• Turn off power to flood-prone basement appliances if it is safe to do so. However, if you have an electrically operated sump pump, you should not turn off the power in your basement.
• Tune in to local news broadcasts for the latest weather and emergency information.
• Take cover if necessary.
  

Customers Asked to Report Power Outages and Downed Wires
Customers' reports are vital to Delmarva Power's restoration efforts.  If you experience an outage or see a downed or damaged power line, call Delmarva Power:

• Delaware: New Castle County: 1-800-898-8042; Kent and Sussex counties: 1-800-898-8045
• Maryland: Cecil and Harford counties: 1-800-898-8042; Eastern Shore: 1-800-898-8045
  

To report a Delmarva natural gas emergency in New Castle County, Del.: 302-454-0317

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Delmarva Power, a public utility owned by Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), provides safe and reliable energy to more than 500,000 electric delivery customers in Delaware and Maryland and over 121,000 natural gas delivery customers in northern Delaware.