You Ask, Patch Answers: Power Outage

Annapolis Roads resident Ellen Scarano said she and her family were caught off guard by a power outage at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Scarano, also a Patch contributor, said her husband called Baltimore, Gas and Electric Co. within a minute of the outage and was told they were already aware of the outage and that power would be restored by 9 p.m.

Electricity was restored before that, but they were still left wondering why they had been in the dark. Fortunately, Scarano said they had just finished cooking dinner.

So I ran the information past Rachael Lighty, spokeswoman for BGE. Lighty said it was a planned outage to allow workers to make repairs to another part of the system.

Lighty said BGE reaches out to customers in several ways to inform them of a planned outage. Depending on the duration of the outage, she said customers may receive an automated phone call and a letter.

Scarano said she was not notified.

For a momentary outage, customers will only receive the call, Lighty said.

"BGE does reach out proactively to all residents whom are affected by a planned outage," Lighty said in an email.

You Ask, Patch Answers is a regular feature for readers who want answers to those questions that pop up every now and then. Have a question? Email it to John.Wilfong@Patch.com.