Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. diligently worked to restore service to customers who lost power as a result of the severe thunderstorms that moved through the company’s service area this past weekend. The fast-moving storm system brought with it high winds in excess of 60 miles per hour in some areas, heavy rain and frequent lightning. BGE crews were pre-mobilized Saturday afternoon in anticipation of the forecasted storms and are working around-the-clock to restore service as safely and as quickly as possible to the more than 14,900 customers experiencing power outages as of Saturday at approximately 9 p.m. In addition, BGE has restored service to nearly 9,300 customers since the storms began earlier in the day.
“BGE is aggressively restoring service to our customers who lost power as a result of today’s strong thunderstorms, and we will continue to work around-the-clock,” said Jeannette M. Mills, vice president and chief customer officer for BGE. “The storms were widespread throughout our service area, but portions of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties were particularly hard hit. While our first priority is always the safety of our customers, crews and contractors, we are committed to working as quickly possible to restore service to our customers. Our restoration priorities first focus on public safety such as downed wires, followed by critical infrastructure, including hospitals and 911 centers. Once these issues have been addressed, field assignments are prioritized in a way that restores service to the greatest number of customers at one time. Consideration will also be given to customers who have been out of service the longest. As always, BGE thanks its customers for their patience and understanding.”
High wind and heavy rain can bring whole trees and tree limbs onto power lines and electrical equipment, causing outages. Removing tree debris – a task that must be completed before work can begin to fix damaged electric equipment – is even more time consuming than removing normal tree debris and will extend outage durations. Certain types of work such as repairs requiring the use of bucket trucks cannot be safely performed when the wind exceeds 25 miles per hour. In that case, BGE begins restoring service as soon as it is safe to do.
