​WASHINGTON, D.C. (Dec. 12, 2019) – Pepco has received PA Consulting's 2019 ReliabilityOne™ Most Improved Utility Award for efforts to modernize the local energy grid and deliver more reliable service for its 883,000 Maryland and District of Columbia customers.  The award recognizes Pepco's ongoing commitment to enhancing service reliability, including efforts that resulted in customers experiencing the fastest restoration times ever, in 2018.

"We know how much our customers rely on reliable energy service to power their lives," said Tyler Anthony, senior vice president and COO of Pepco Holdings. "Every one of our employees is working day in and day out to keep the lights on and exceed the expectations of our customers.  We are so proud to be recognized for our effort to meet those commitments."

Pepco joined its sister Exelon companies, Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and ComEd in receiving reliability awards from PA Consulting.

Energy customers across Pepco's Maryland and District of Columbia service area are continuing to experience improvements in the reliability of their energy service, a result of Pepco's ongoing efforts to modernize the local energy grid. This work has helped drive down both the frequency and duration of power outages, resulting in record low outage duration in 2018.

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.

"Since 2000, PA Consulting's ReliabilityOne™ program has celebrated energy providers that are reaching new heights of reliability," said Gregg Edeson, PA Consulting's ReliabilityOne™ program director. "This year we recognize a new category of top performers, the 'most improved' utilities in the US. Pepco has been on a journey to improve reliability via innovative technologies and people-led process improvement."

PA's ReliabilityOne™ awards are presented to energy companies providing their customers with the highest levels of reliability in the industry. PA's ReliabilityOne™ study is based on standard industry reliability statistics that measure the frequency and duration of electric power outages. ReliabilityOne™ participants on average experienced 53 percent fewer sustained outages, and outages were 41 percent shorter than the average US investor owned utility. PA has been analyzing electric utility performance since 1987. For more information about PA Consulting, visit www.paconsulting.com/energy.

Readers are encouraged to visit The Source, Pepco's online news room. For more information about Pepco, visit pepco.com. Follow the company on Facebook at facebook.com/pepcoconnect and on Twitter at twitter.com/pepcoconnect. Our mobile app is available at pepco.com/mobileapp.