PECO Crews Respond to Violent Spring Storm

Business Wire,  May 12, 2008  

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More Outages Can Be Expected as Gusty Winds Continue

PHILADELPHIA -- PECO crews continue to restore electric customers to service as the Spring's first strong wind and rainstorm knocked out service to more than 50,000 electric customers.

The storm began at 1 a.m. as multiple lines of thunderstorms moved through the Greater Philadelphia region. The system brought strong winds with gusts nearly 40 m.p.h. that caused many downed power wires, fallen tree limbs on aerial lines, and damaged pole-top fuses and circuit breakers.

As of 3 p.m., about 9,500 PECO customers remain without electric service mainly in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. Only several hundred customers remain off in Philadelphia County.

"We expect this storm restoration effort to continue through tonight and into tomorrow," said Mike Innocenzo, PECO emergency response director. "Our crews are doing a good job of quickly returning customers to service, but because the high winds are continuing, our crews are getting new jobs as quickly as they complete the old ones. We expect most customers to be restored by midnight tonight, but we will have scattered outages that extend into Tuesday."

PECO has company and contract crews on system and available for the remainder of the restoration effort. Right now the organization is preparing contract and PECO crews for work tonight and into tomorrow in order to respond to any trouble that could occur from impending winds.

PECO reminds all customers to call 1-800-841-4141 if they experience a power outage. Customers shouldn't assume that other nearby residents may have reported the interruption. The more calls the company receives about trouble, the better it can analyze the extent of damage and more effectively dispatch crews and respond.

Based in Philadelphia, PECO is an electric and natural gas utility serving 1.6 million electric and 480,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania and employs about 2,500 people in the region. PECO delivered 78.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas and 39.9 billion kilowatt-hours-hours of electricity in 2007. Founded in 1881, PECO is one of the Greater Philadelphia Region's most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations.

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