Dear Elected Official:
With winter quickly approaching and temperatures starting to drop, Pepco wants you to know that we are ready. Our crews have performed essential work to prepare the local energy grid to help meet increased customer demand and keep homes warm and bright and businesses operational all winter long. We also recognize our responsibility to serve customers by working to keep bills as low as possible and to continue to help our customers through these difficult times.
Many of our customers are still facing economic challenges, while recovering from the pandemic. We recognize that they are also managing the very real negative impacts of inflation and rising prices for the products and services they are using each day. We are committed to keeping every customer connected with extended payment arrangements and working to help them secure important energy assistance. We have worked hard to support our customers through the pandemic and will continue to provide that support for our customers who may be experiencing higher than anticipated bills. We care about our customers and have a wide range of payment options we can offer customers based on their individual account and household income. Many of these arrangements can be made quickly and easily by calling 202-833-7500 or by visiting our website at pepco.com/help. By calling us, or by visiting our website, our customers can learn about all of the essential programs we have to help.
Every day, we are committed to providing safe, reliable and clean energy service, while helping to maintain affordability for our customers and communities. Our customers depend on reliable energy service to power their lives. We are investing every day in our systems to meet the growing energy needs of our customers and to provide a world-class customer experience. Specifically, the Capital Grid project is currently underway to increase the capacity of our system, upgrade aging infrastructure and to network our system to meet the future needs of our customers. The DC PLUG project is also ongoing to underground feeders in Wards 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 to enhance reliability, and the Rubber Lead Cable project is taking place throughout the District of Columbia to upgrade aged feeders currently serving our customers. In addition, the Pepco Downtown Resupply project is underway to ensure the system is appropriately sized to handle enough load in areas serving our businesses, restaurants and other commercial areas in the downtown corridor. All of these projects are purposed to maintain reliability and to ensure our system meets the needs of our growing region. The work to upgrade our energy grid includes inspecting and upgrading equipment; vegetation management, which cause about 22 percent of power outages for our customers each year; building and upgrading new underground equipment; and installing stronger, tree-resistant aerial cable. We also are installing technologies to improve system reliability, such as specialized equipment that can automatically restore service faster or isolate damage.
Along with our focus on providing reliable service, we also conduct annual emergency response drills and complete testing of computer and emergency systems as part of our winter preparedness program. Employees from across the company review emergency processes and procedures to help ensure a safe and efficient response to storms or emergencies. As part of the Exelon family of companies, we share best practices with our sister companies (Atlantic City Electric, BGE, ComEd, Delmarva Power and PECO) and participate in emergency response training exercises to ensure we can provide seamless support and resources during a storm or emergency restoration effort. This practice of collaborating and sharing resources demonstrates the benefits of being part of the Exelon family of companies. For example, this past summer, crews from Atlantic City Electric supported Pepco and Delmarva in response to a mid-July storm system that brought wind gusts of 80 mph and impacted service to nearly 50,000 Pepco customers and approximately 25,000 Delmarva Power customers.
Being prepared is a responsibility that we take very seriously, and we encourage others to do the same. Pepco also works closely with emergency management agency partners year-round to ensure preparedness and coordination when responding to storms and other emergency events. Please help us spread the word about emergency preparedness and the steps that can be taken to keep our crews and the public safe by encouraging your constituents to assemble an emergency storm kit and prepare a plan for what to do during a power outage or winter storm. We ask that you also encourage residents to visit pepco.com/mobileapp to download our mobile app, which has many resources to keep customers informed during a storm. More tips, resources and safety information are available at pepco.com.
If a severe storm hits, we monitor local weather reports regularly and follow the advice of local emergency management officials. We follow a strategic response plan to restore service to the greatest number of customers first and will work to restore service to our customers as quickly and safely as possible. Customers are asked to immediately report a downed wire or service issue by calling 1-877-PEPCO-62 (1-877-737-2662), visiting pepco.com or through our mobile app. Pepco customers can also text “Out” to “48710” to report an outage on their mobile device. Customers must first text “ADD OUTAGE” to “48710” to sign up for this service. Also, in the event we need to reach our customers, we ask that they please confirm that we have their current phone number in the “My Alerts and Notifications” section of our website: Pepco.com/MyAccount.
By taking a few simple steps, together we can be ready and stay safe, warm and dry this winter.
Sincerely,
Travoris Culpepper
Manager, Strategic Infrastructure
& Operations Initiatives
Potomac Electric Power Company
701 Ninth St NW, Washington, DC 20001
Office: 202 428 1052| Mobile: 202 517 4752