Delmarva Power customers continue to experience some of the lowest frequencies of electric outages compared to previous years.
Delmarva Power’s 324,000 electric customers in Delaware continued to experience far fewer frequencies of electric outages, on average, than ten years ago. The average number of outages in Delaware in 2021 was nearly 41 percent lower than in 2011.
This came despite severe storms, including tornadoes.
When service was interrupted, crews were able to safely restore service in a record 75 minutes, on average, in 2021.
The fewer outages have also come as Delmarva’s grid ages, even in newer areas with underground utilities.
Delmarva noted that further investments in the grid will be needed due to climate change, more solar power coming online, and the number of electric vehicles needing charging on the rise.
“We are committed more than ever to providing the best possible service for our customers,” said Tamla Olivier, senior vice president & COO of Delmarva’s parent Pepco Holdings. “This continued improvement in our reliability performance is a testament to the ongoing work and dedication of our employees year-over-year to provide our customers safe and reliable energy service. We will continue modernizing the energy grid across our entire service area through strategic infrastructure upgrades that will help harden the system against severe weather and will further the development and interconnection of clean energy resources.”
Ongoing work includes inspecting existing infrastructure, trimming trees that could impact the system, building new substations and new underground equipment, strengthening transmission and distribution lines, and installing stronger, tree-resistant aerial cable. Delmarva Power also installs technologies to improve system reliability, such as specialized equipment, like smart switches and reclosers, that can automatically detect issues and restore service faster by automatically isolating damage. According to a release, the technologies have been a major driver in the continued reduction in outages for customers.
One major Delaware project is Church to Massey – Modernizing the local energy grid in Kent County to strengthen the local energy infrastructure and improve reliability for nearly 19,000 local customers.
In Maryland, two pilot programs are in Ocean City and Cecil County are using battery storage as a way to provide backup power or aid the grid during peak energy periods.
Delmarva has been seeing some resistance from state regulators who question whether the cost of gaining a few percentage points of reliability is worth the added expense.
For more information on reliability enhancement projects across Delaware and Maryland, visit delmarva.com/Reliability.
