Mutual Assistance Crews Join Restoration Effort

WASHINGTON - Pepco has restored power to more than 190,000 customers and received reports of more than 1000 downed power lines since this weekend's storm hit our service territory.

As we continue restoration throughout our service territory, Pepco estimates power restored to most customers in the District of Columbia and Prince Georges County by Monday morning with the remainder by Wednesday morning. However, the majority of Montgomery County customers will be restored by Tuesday evening with the remainder by the end of the week. According to weather forecasts, another winter storm may pass through our service territory on Tuesday. Due to changing conditions, ETRs may change. Pepco urges customers to call the Pepco outage line at 1-877-PEPCO-62 for any updates with regards to their specific outage .

"The road conditions have made the assessment of damage and the restoration of electric service challenging, but we continue to make progress in our effort to restore service to customers affected by this weekend's powerful winter storm," said Thomas Graham, President, Pepco Region. "Crews will be working around the clock until all customers are restored."

As of 5 p.m. today, Pepco had approximately 53,000 customers without power. The majority of these outages remain in Montgomery County where there has been extensive damage to the system, but there are outages throughout the District of Columbia and Prince Georges County. As part of the restoration effort, Pepco has received assistance from other utilities, including its sister utility Delaware-based Delmarva Power, and North Carolina-based Progress Energy .

"In times of need, the utilities have a good, mutual understanding for helping one another out. This time around, for Pepco, this is certainly a time of need," Graham said. "With the help of outside utilities we will continue to work around the clock until we have restored power to our entire service territory."

Pepco strongly urges everyone to never touch a downed or damaged power line. Do not attempt to move downed or damaged power lines with branches, boards, etc. Again, Stay away from downed lines and report them immediately.

"As t his is an extended restoration effort, we encourage customers to plan accordingly, but keep safety as their number one priority." Graham said.

For customers without power, Pepco urges them to unplug or turn off all appliances that will come on when the power is restored since they overload circuits and cause an unnecessary outage. The company suggests customers leave a lamp switched on so they will know when their power has been safely restored.

"We thank our customers for their patience during this restoration effort. The large amounts of snow and ice continue to make it difficult for crews to get to the outage locations thus slowing down the restoration process and inhibiting our ability to completely assess the damage," he said. "We continue to work with the District of Columbia, Montgomery and Prince George's counties for assistance in getting to the major outages."

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Pepco, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), delivers safe, reliable and affordable electric service to more than 750,000 customers in Maryland and the District of Columbia.