Summer is just around the corner and Delmarva Power is prepping to deal with outages that can come with summer storms and heat.
Loss of power isn’t just an inconvenience. It can put some customers at risk. So Delmarva Power is checking its systems and testing its processes and procedures, with the goal of making service as reliable as possible during the summer months.
Delmarva Power spokesman Jake Sneeden says with the start of hurricane season last Friday, the utility is ready for anything the season can bring.
“Whether it’ summer storms, increased use of energy with the heat from summer, we’re prepared. We’ve been investing in our system and drilling for emergency situations all season. And now that it’s here, we’re ready. We’re also coordinating closely with emergency management professionals,” Sneeden said.
Sneeden says keeping the lights on and the gas flowing is a year-round job.
He notes when power does go out there is a process to getting it back on. Delmarva follows a very specific sequence to make sure life-threatening situations are addressed first, then crews look at how the power can be restored.
“When a storm hits, we follow a very specific sequence to make sure that one: we’re addressing any potentially life-threatening situations or public health and safety issues first, so that could be downed, live-wires and that sort of thing. Then we’re looking at how can we restore power to the most customers at once,” said Sneeden.
Sneeden notes Delmarva has online resources to keep customers informed about outages, including an interactive outage map at its website, and on its mobile app. That provides customers information about outages in the area and offers an estimate of how quickly power is expected to be restored.
Delmarva Power has 520,000 electric customers and 132,000 natural gas customers.
