BALTIMORE, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), a subsidiary of Constellation Energy , today announced that it continues to restore power to more than 80,000 customers whose service has been interrupted as a result of extremely high wind and toppled trees associated with Tropical Storm Ernesto.
"Even as the remnants of Ernesto continues to impact the BGE service territory, our crews have been on the street non-stop, making conditions safe and restoring power as quickly and as safely as possible, despite very hazardous driving and working conditions," said Stephen J. Woerner, vice president of electric transmission and distribution for BGE. "As with any outage, we strongly urge our customers to exercise extreme caution around downed power lines and to contact BGE to report any loss of power. We want to thank our customers in advance for their patience as we continue to work aggressively to address service interruptions. As always, the safety of our customers and employees must take priority."
The majority of customers impacted by the storm were in Anne Arundel, Prince George's and Calvert Counties, although outages have occurred, and continue to occur throughout BGE's Central Maryland service territory. In total, more than 150,000 BGE customers have been affected by Ernesto, which began late morning yesterday. At the peak, more than 100,000 customers were without electricity due largely to large trees and limbs falling on power lines. As of this morning, BGE crews had restored power to nearly 70,000 customers.
More than 500 employees have been engaged in the restoration effort with additional field crews from contractors and neighboring utilities expected to begin arriving this morning.
"Utilities throughout the region held their crews until the full impact of Ernesto was known. Now that the storm is moving away from the region, neighboring utilities are making available their employees and contractors to assist utilities such as BGE, which have experienced the brunt of the storm," said Woerner.
BGE will continue to assess the damage to its system before making a firm commitment on when power will be restored to all customers, however, restoration efforts will extend into Sunday, and possibly Monday for some isolated customers.
BGE restores power with the following priorities in mind:
-- Public safety including downed and sparking wires
-- Critical facilities including hospitals, 911 call centers, and water
and sewage treatment plants
-- Large outages affecting the greatest number of customers
-- Customers that have been without power for the longest period of time
BGE encourages its customers to report all outages by calling 1-877-778-2222. Knowing about each outage assists BGE to determine where the damage is on its system. As a reminder, BGE is no longer distributing dry ice in order to better support restoration efforts. Also, BGE urges its customers to avoid downed wires and trees. Customers should immediately report downed wires to BGE at the number above and warn others to stay away.
If dependent upon electric-powered medical equipment, customers are encouraged to make alternate arrangements in the event service is interrupted. Customers should also disconnect sensitive electronic equipment such as computers and televisions to avoid surge damage during restoration (surges can occur at other times, so customers may want to consider purchasing surge protectors for sensitive equipment). When using a generator, customers should ensure it is properly vented.
In preparation for the storm's arrival, BGE had been monitoring the weather and assessing staffing, equipment and other needs to ensure the availability of sufficient resources. Additionally, BGE conducts emergency training drills to test all aspects of service restoration. BGE also reviews its Electric Delivery Emergency Response Plan to ensure that storm response procedures are current and in line with industry standards.
BGE is a member of Constellation Energy, (http://www.constellation.com/), a FORTUNE 200 company, the nation's largest competitive supplier of electricity to large commercial and industrial customers and the nation's largest wholesale power seller. Constellation Energy also manages fuels and energy services on behalf of energy intensive industries and utilities. It owns a diversified fleet of more than 100 generating units located throughout the United States, totaling approximately 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity. The company delivers electricity and natural gas through the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), its regulated utility in Central Maryland.
