Atlantic City Electric Preparing for Summer Storms

Atlantic City Electric is making preparations to help ensure safe and reliable service for its customers ahead of what may be a busy hurricane season, the electric company announced on Wednesday.

Through its Reliability Improvement Plan and other electric distribution system investments, the company has invested more than $716 million on new technology, system upgrades and expansions since 2011 to modernize the electric system and help protect it against extreme weather events, according to the company.

“Atlantic City Electric has performed reliability upgrades and system improvements on about 210 electric circuits, higher voltage lines that distribute electricity to customers, upgraded hundreds of miles of wire, replaced hundreds of poles and installed automated switching technology on dozens of electric circuits designed to isolate outages and restore power to customers quicker,” the electric company said in a statement. “In addition, the company has upgraded four substations with new equipment, circuit breakers and transformers, and built three new substations in Atlantic, Cape May and Gloucester counties.”

The company has implemented a comprehensive vegetation management plan and has spent more than $40 million over the last three years on tree trimming and associated vegetation management work along nearly 5,200 miles of power lines to help prevent outages.

“We are prepared for whatever the summer storm and hurricane seasons bring,” Atlantic City Electric Region President Vince Maione said. “It takes only one storm to cause property damage and widespread power outages. We want to assure our customers that we are committed to an emergency response system that makes safety a priority, restores power as quickly as possible and provides customers with information on how to prepare for and deal with weather-related outages.”

To prepare for storm-related power outages, Atlantic City Electric employees participate in emergency drills on a regular basis.

The electric company also maintains an adequate supply of essential equipment, such as poles, wires and transformers, and stays in contact with other utilities to quickly arrange for mutual assistance in case of a natural disaster.

“We also believe that preventive maintenance is essential in reducing the potential for service interruptions caused by stormy weather,” Maione said. “We plan to continue to make investments over the next several years to upgrade and modernize our electric infrastructure. We’ll also continue regular tree trimming near power lines to help avoid outages that can be caused by trees and limbs that fall during storms.”

Atlantic City Electric encourages residents to assemble an emergency kit that can be used at home and, if necessary, taken with them if they’re ordered to evacuate.

Each kit should include a flashlight, battery-powered clock and radio, extra batteries, non-perishable food, manual can opener, bottled water and a list of important phone numbers.

All items can be placed into a large cooler which is easy to grab if a person has to leave home quickly.

Atlantic City Electric also provides a “Weathering the Storm Fact Sheet” that can be downloaded at atlanticcityelectric.com.