About 23,000 Pepco customers were without power sometime between Sunday evening and Monday due to the winds that swept through Montgomery County.
The Pepco Emergency Response Organization restored power to more than 90% of those suffering outages in less than 24 hours, according to its news release.
As of Tuesday at 4:42 p.m., Pepco reported there were still 22 outages affecting 47 customers.
During the first few hours, crews worked on repairs to transmission and substation equipment first, focusing on life-threatening, safety and health situations.
Next, the crews addressed main distribution lines serving large number of customers, and then finally they worked on secondary lines serving neighborhoods and lines to individual homes and businesses. According to Pepco, that last stage “was the most labor intensive.”
“We know outages, especially those during cold winter months, are frustrating and disruptive to our customers and we appreciate their patience and understanding as we worked to get lights and heating systems back on safely and as quickly as possible, “said Valencia McClure, Pepco region president.
“Our year-round preparation and investments in the grid are helping reduce the impact of severe weather events like these and better equip our teams to respond so we can provide the best possible service to our customers.”
With additional winter weather expected late this week, customers are also encouraged to visit pepco.com/StormPrep for helpful tips and tools they can use to prepare for weather and other emergency events. Pepco is also offering enhanced customer programs, energy savings tips, and more to support customers through the colder-than-usual winter the region is experiencing. Visit pepco.com/BillSupport for details.
During Sunday, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services personnel handled 532 calls for service. Normally, there would only be about 400 calls, according to spokesperson Pete Piringer. He said the increase was due to storm related activity, including 90 wires down, more than 20 trees on structures and six trees on cars.
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