MAYS LANDING Atlantic City Electric has restored service for all of the more than 200,000 customers affected by the devastating impacts of Tropical Storm Isaias. Approximately 14 customers impacted by the destructive storms that moved through South Jersey on Thursday and Friday were expected to be restored by early Monday morning.
Tropical Storm Isaias was one of the most devastating storms in our company's history, and the added affects of subsequent storms, along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, made this restoration effort even more challenging, said Gary Stockbridge, Atlantic City Electric region president. We want to express our sincere appreciation to our customers, especially those in the most heavily damaged areas, for their patience and understanding as we worked around the clock to restore their service.
The company amassed one of the largest contingents of personnel in the company's history with more than 1,700 personnel working around the clock to repair the extensive damage and restore service for customers. This contingent of resources included Atlantic City Electric field and support personnel, support from sister Exelon companies, BGE, ComEd and Pepco, and local contractors, and resources from several other companies from as far away as Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Canada.
Crews were able to restore service to 90 percent of the more than 200,000 customers impacted by Tropical Storm Isaias within 36 hours and 95 percent in just 48 hours after the storm moved out of the company's service area.
I also want to thank the thousands of employees at Atlantic City Electric, our local contractors, the personnel from our sister companies, BGE, ComEd and Pepco, and the mutual assistance we received from across the country and from Canada for their tireless contributions to this incredible effort. This was one of the largest teams we have ever mobilized for a weather event. Your teamwork, selflessness and commitment to our customers in challenging conditions have been inspiring, said Stockbridge.
As with all storm responses, Atlantic City Electric took a systematic approach when responding to Tropical Storm Isaias, prioritizing repairs to equipment that would restore power to the greatest number of customers first.
During the first 36 hours, crews focused on addressing life-threatening, safety and health situations, assessing the damage, and completing repairs to transmission equipment and substations. Crews then focused on addressing main distribution lines serving large numbers of customers. The final stages were the most labor intensive and included completing repairs to secondary lines serving neighborhoods and service lines to individual homes and businesses.
Storms like these demonstrate the critical importance of the reliability improvements Atlantic City Electric is implementing across its service area to help reduce outages and enhance the resiliency of the local energy grid. This effort includes modernizing infrastructure, such as replacing aging wood poles that are more vulnerable to storm damage with stronger, state-of-the-art steel utility poles, capable of withstanding winds up to 120 mph, and adding greater automation on the local energy grid with new substations and equipment. The company also is planning to request approval to move forward with a project to install smart meters, which are expected to help reduce the time spent on future power restoration efforts. For more information on reliability enhancement projects across Atlantic City Electric's service area, visit atlanticcityelectric.com/reliability.
This is also a timely reminder for communities to be prepared for severe weather and other emergencies. September is just around the corner and not only marks National Preparedness Month but also the typical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. To help customers plan and prepare for an emergency, Atlantic City Electric offers the following tips:
