For Immediate Release
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NEWARK, Del. (June 14, 2016) - Warm weather brings outdoor parties for graduations, birthdays and weddings. However, when foil balloons, also known as Mylar balloons, from those festivities come into contact with power lines, outages can occur.
When a foil balloon contacts a power line or a part of substation equipment, its metallic properties can cause a surge of electricity that can, in turn, cause the equipment to short-circuit. And the spark could lead to a power outage or fire. Foil balloons were the cause of nearly two dozen service interruptions since January 2015, resulting in almost 1,400 outages with an overall impact to approximately 30,000 Delmarva Power customers over the past 17 months (roughly an average of 1.5 balloon related incidents per month).Delmarva Power encourages customers to help reduce foil balloon-related power outages and ensure safety by keeping the following tips in mind:
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