Power Restored To All South Jersey Residents

All 31,500 Atlantic City Electric customers that lost power during Tuesday's storm have been restored, the electric company said Thursday evening.

Within 24 hours of the end of the storm, 95 percent of customers who lost power had been restored.

The electric company began implementing its restoration strategy about a week before the storm swept into South Jersey. High winds, snow, sleet and rain downed power lines and damaged the electric system infrastructure.

A total of 125 internal linemen and 356 contractors were brought in to perform restoration work. In addition, PECO, an Exelon sister utility, sent 113 contractors and 12 internal linemen to help restore customers.

“We could not have accomplished this restoration effort as safely and efficiently as we have if it were not for the planning, preparation and performance of our staff and crews,” Atlantic City Electric Region President Vince Maione said. “We thank our customers and appreciate their patience and understanding as we worked to restore service. We also thank our hard working crews, emergency management agencies and government officials.”

As part of the Exelon family of utilities, all Pepco Holdings utilities now have the added strength and availability of additional resources to ensure customers are restored safely and efficiently during and after a storm event.

Restoration efforts are prioritized by first addressing damages to critical electric infrastructure including transmission lines and substation equipment.

Earlier in the week, Atlantic City Electric said four transmission lines were down. In Camden, PSE&G was working to get a substation back online that is responsible for more than 4,000 homes without power, according to county officials.

"The safety of our customers and crews is paramount," Maione said. "Customers are urged to avoid working crews and to stay away from all downed wires, even if they don’t appear to be energized."

Customers’ outage reports are vital to Atlantic City Electric’s restoration efforts. Customers are asked to report outages at www.atlanticcityelectric.com or by calling 1-800-833-7476 and following the prompts on the automated system.

If reporting an emergency or another life-threatening situation such as downed wires, customers should immediately call 1-800-833-7476 and follow the appropriate prompts. Multiple call center sites have been staffed to support customer service efforts and our systems have been networked together for expanded capacity.

Atlantic City Electric also recommends, when reporting an outage, customers request a call back. Call backs allow the company to notify customers when work in their area is completed and they also help Atlantic City Electric locate outages that may be specific to customers’ homes.

To track outages, view the Atlantic City Electric outage map.

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Patch file photo