For Immediate Release
September 21, 2003, 9:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m. Outage Update
Pepco Continues Unprecedented Restoration Effort;
Crews Restore Service to A Quarter Million Customers

Pepco crews, along with crews on loan from other utilities, worked through the night in the largest power restoration effort in Pepco's history. More than half a million customers lost power at the peak of the storm and,as of 9 a.m. Sunday, more than half of those had been restored to service.

About 245,000 customers remain without power, and crews continue to work around the clock to restore service as quickly as possible. Currently there are 570 crews working in rotation during the day with another 261 ready for the next shift, including 62 additional crews from Kentucky and Tennessee who arrived overnight.

Damage from the storm was severe and is requiring an unprecedented restoration effort. For example, crews already have replaced137,000 feet of cable and thousands of fuses and have received more than2,500 downed wires reports.

Pepco estimates that nearly all customers will have power restored by Friday. Pepco is continuing to follow its established restoration procedures: We first work to correct potentially life-threatening situations, such as downed live wires. We then work to restore power to the largest number of customers at one time by focusing on repairs to substations and major feeder lines. Completion of these repairs often results in restored power to thousands of customers at once. We then work to restore power to smaller groups of customers or neighborhoods. Finally, we work to restore power to individual homes and businesses. Pepco maintains contact with state and local emergency management agencies to keep them up to date on the status of restoration efforts.

Pepco urges customers to call in if they are still without power and notice that their neighbors have regained power. The number to call is 1-877-PEPCO62.

As of 9:30 a.m., today, the following outages are reported on the Pepco system:

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About Pepco: For more than 100 years, Pepco has served the people of the Washington metropolitan area with clean, reliable and low-cost electricity. Pepco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), provides electricity transmission and distribution services to more than 700,000 customers in the District of Columbia and major portions of Prince George`s and Montgomery County in Maryland.

Point of Contact:
David Morehead