Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), a subsidiary of Constellation Energy, had approximately 60 BGE employees head last week to the Gulf Coast area to provide electric service restoration assistance to subsidiaries of Entergy Corporation in response to Hurricane Rita. The overhead linemen and support staff departed from BGE's Piney Orchard Service Center in Odenton, Maryland, on Saturday, Sept. 24 and were expected to arrive in Entergy's service territory by Tuesday, Sept. 27. The exact destination of BGE personnel was to be determined as the track of the storm progressed, but it will likely be in the area of the Louisiana-Texas border.

“With little time to recover from their Hurricane Katrina assignments, the men and women of BGE are once again proving they are up to the challenge as they head into yet another hurricane zone, ready, willing and certainly capable of assisting with the restoration effort,” said Mark P. Huston, vice president of electric transmission and distribution for BGE. “They continue to make BGE proud, leaving their own families in exchange for hard work and long hours under less than ideal conditions, in order to help others begin the slow process of rebuilding their lives.”

Since late August, more than 350 BGE employees and contractors have assisted with electric service restoration in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and now possibly Texas.

BGE is part of a mutual assistance network of utilities which regularly discusses current and approaching weather conditions, the potential impact on each utility's service territory and available resources. In accordance with preexisting agreements, the requesting utility assumes the costs associated with mutual assistance.