Pepco Customers Continue to Experience Improvements in Service Reliability with Fastest Restoration Times Ever in 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 7, 2019) – Pepco customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland experienced the fastest restoration times ever, as well as some of the lowest number of electric outages, on average, in the company’s history in 2018. Over the past five years, ongoing investments in the local energy grid have driven a 30 percent decrease in the frequency of electric outages Pepco customers have experienced.

“Delivering improved service reliability year-over-year is a direct result of every one of our employees keeping our customers front and center in everything we do,” said Tyler Anthony, senior vice president & COO, Pepco Holdings, which includes Pepco. “Whether it’s their home, their business, or their car, our customers are more connected than ever to the local energy grid, which is why we are making sustained investments to make the grid more reliable and resilient to meet their evolving energy needs.”

Over the last five years, the investments made every day in the District and Maryland to modernize the local energy grid have enhanced reliability for customers. This work has helped drive down both the frequency and duration of power outages, resulting in record low outage duration in 2018, with Pepco restoring service in just 82 minutes, on average, when outages did occur.

During the past five years, the frequency of service interruptions for customers also have decreased 23 percent in the District of Columbia and 37 percent in Maryland. During the same time, customers in the District were restored 44 minutes faster and Maryland customers were restored 24 minutes faster, on average.

Each day, work is performed as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to further improve reliability for customers. This work includes inspecting existing infrastructure, trimming trees that could potentially impact the system, building new substations, building new underground equipment, strengthening transmission and distribution lines, and installing stronger, tree-resistant aerial cable. The company also is installing innovative technologies to improve system reliability, such as specialized equipment that can automatically restore service more quickly or isolate damage. These new technologies have been a main driver behind the continued drop in the frequency of outages customers experience.

Important projects and ongoing work that are enhancing the reliability of the local energy grid and reducing the frequency of outages for Pepco customers are paid for through the delivery charges on customer bills. Delivery charges are reviewed and set by the public service commissions in the District and Maryland through a transparent regulatory rate review process.

Pepco also continues to share best practices with its Exelon sister utilities, Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power and PECO, many of which also posted record reliability performances in 2018.

To learn more, readers are encouraged to visit The Source, Pepco’s online news room. Find additional information about Pepco by visiting www.pepco.com. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pepcoconnect and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pepcoconnect. Our mobile app is available at www.pepco.com/mobileapp.

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About Pepco: Pepco, a public utility owned by Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), provides safe and reliable energy to more than 842,000 electric delivery customers in Maryland and the District of Columbia.