Atlantic City Electric Honored For Fewer Outages, Faster Response

Atlantic City Electric customers experienced the lowest average number of power outages in the company’s history last year. The company has been recognized for that, as well as for having its fastest restoration times ever. Atlantic City Electric has received PA Consulting’s 2018 ReliabilityOne Outstanding Midsize Utility Award, for providing exceptional reliability, the company announced.

“We are extremely honored to be recognized for our efforts in providing customers with the
highest level of reliability in our industry,” Pepco Holdings President and CEO Dave Velazquez said. “This award exemplifies our commitment to provide the highest quality of service for our communities and is a testament to the hard work our employees perform each day to meet the energy needs of our customers.”

Pepco Holdings includes Atlantic City Electric, which was able to improve its service by making improvements to the local energy grid. In 2017, the average number of outages decreased by 17 percent from the previous low, set in 2015.

When customers did experience an outage, Atlantic City Electric restored power an average of seven minutes faster than the previous record set in 2015. During the past five years, the number of electric outages has decreased by more than 40 percent and outage length has been reduced by 18 percent.

Atlantic City Electric has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in South Jersey during the past five years to further improve service reliability for customers, including about $312 million in 2017 alone.

This work includes enhancing the local energy grid with new devices, stronger poles, and more modern equipment, while trimming trees, which can cause up to 40 percent of power outages for customers each year.

The company also is using innovative technologies to improve system reliability, such as specialized equipment that can automatically restore service more quickly or isolate damage.

All mid-sized energy companies operating energy delivery grids in North America and serving between 300,000 and 750,000 customers, are eligible for consideration for the Outstanding Midsize Utility Award. Recipients are based primarily on system reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of customer outages.

After initial recipients are identified, each company undergoes an on-site certification process, which provides an independent review and confirmation of the policies, processes and systems used to collect, analyze and report a company's reliability results. For more information about PA Consulting and the ReliabilityOne Award, visit www.paconsulting.com/energy.

To learn more about Atlantic City Electric, visit The Source, Atlantic City Electric’s online news room. Find additional information about Atlantic City Electric by visiting atlanticcityelectric.com. Follow the company on Facebook at facebook.com/atlanticcityelectric and on Twitter at twitter.com/acelecconnect. Atlantic City Electric’s mobile app is available at atlanticcityelectric.com/mobileapp.

The attached image was provided: Pictured left to right are Greg Brubaker, manager, Engineering and Design, Atlantic City Electric; Paul Lipari, manager, Reliability Programs, Pepco Holdings; and Bryan Clark, director, Utility of the Future, Pepco Holdings.