occasional
power outages are unavoidable.
Sometimes the reason for an outage is clear,
such as a major thunderstorm. Other times,
the reason may not be as readily apparent to
our customers.
Whatever the cause of a power outage, we
understand the inconvenience and hardship
that loss of power presents, and greatly
appreciate your patience as we work to
restore service as quickly as possible.
This brochure provides you with basic information
on how you can plan ahead, Pepcos restoration
process and what you can do to make the best
of a difficult situation until your power is
restored, including: What to do BEFORE an outage
occurs so that you will be prepared
to handle one ..................................................
2 How to stay safe and informed when
an outage occurs ..............................................
3 Key steps to take if your electricity is out ......
4 An illustrated explanation of our
power restoration process ..............................
8 Answers to our most commonly
asked questions ..............................................
12 Safety tips ......................................................
19 Other resources ..............................................
20 3
Plan for Special Needs
If you or someone you know uses life-
support equipment that requires
electricity to operate, identify a
location with emergency power
capabilities and
make plans to go
there or to a hospital during a
prolonged outage
. Because life-
support customers are spread
throughout all parts of our service
area, providing restoration priority to these
customers when there are extensive power
outages is not possible. It is important that
customers with special needs or their caregivers
take responsibility to
make arrangements ahead
of time
to prepare for potentially long-lasting
interruptions in service. You may want to ask a
relative or friend who has power if you can stay
with them. Another option is to research whether
or not a portable generator is appropriate for your
situation. Customers who experience medical
distress due to a power outage should seek
medical assistance.
When a Storm Threatens
Stay Safe and Informed
Locate your emergency go kit or
storm kit
and check your supplies of bottled
water and nonperishable food.

If a major storm is forecast, make
sure you have
adequate prescription
medicines or infant supplies
on hand.

Tune into
local news broadcasts.
Take cover
if recommended.
Unplug
sensitive electronics and
turn off
power to flood-prone
basements and appliances if it is safe
to do so. However, if you have an
electrically operated sump pump,
you should not turn off
your power.
Fill your bathtub
with water if
your water supply depends on electricity.
2
Plan Ahead for a Storm
What You Can Do Now
Because power outages sometimes happen,
planning ahead is essential. Here are some
things you can do right now to prepare:
Assemble an emergency
go kit or storm kit.
Include a copy of this
brochure, a battery-operated
radio or television, flashlight,
a first-aid kit, battery-
powered or windup
clock, extra
batteries, special needs items, an
insulated cooler and a list of
emergency phone
numbers, including:
1-877-PEPCO62
(1-877-737-2662)
to
report power outages
and
202-872-3432
to report
downed wires or life threatening
emergencies.

Keep at least a
3-day supply of
nonperishable
foods
and
bottled
water
and have a
hand-operated can opener
available.

Make sure you have
a
telephone with a cord
or cell phone
to use as a
backup. Cordless telephones require electricity
to operate, and wont work if there is an
outage.
Protect your electronic
equipment.
Plug computers
and other sensitive
equipment into surge
suppressors, and consider a
UPS (uninterruptible power
supply) for temporary battery
back-up power. 5
Key Steps to Take
Report downed wires,
burning wires, or struck
poles, by calling 202-872-
3432.
It is very important
for public safety purposes
that this number be used
only
to report downed
wires and not to report
outages. If your electricity
is off, but you do not
have a specific downed wire to report, please
call 1-877-PEPCO62.
Unplug or turn off all appliances
that will
come on when the power returns, or they may
overload our circuits when the power comes
back on. Leave a lamp switched on so you will
know when the power is restored. Then you can
turn your appliances back on, one at a time,
over a 20-minute period.
Keep freezer and refrigerator doors shut;
open them only when absolutely necessary. Food
will stay frozen for 36 to 48 hours in a fully loaded
freezer if you keep the door closed. A half-full
freezer will keep food frozen for 24 hours.
Close shades or curtains
to
keep rooms cooler in warm
weather. During the winter, let
the sun warm rooms during
the day and close shades and
curtains at night.
If you have a battery-powered
laptop computer or if you are at work and your
office has power, go to
www.pepco.com
for
frequent storm restoration updates and to view
our outage maps and crew location
information.
To report downed wires,
burning wires, or struck
poles, call 202-872-3432.
4
If Your Electricity is Out
Key Steps to Take
Check to see if your neighbors are without
power, too.
If they have power and you do not,
the problem could be a tripped circuit breaker
within your own home. If the circuit breaker
does not appear to be the problem,
call Pepco
to report your outage at 1-877-PEPCO62
.
Extensive outages may generate a large volume
of customer calls. During these large outages,
we supplement our call center staff with
employees who have been cross-trained to
assist customers. In addition, our
High Volume
Call Answering System
(HVCA) will
automatically
handle up to
100,000 calls per
hour to reduce
the incidence of
busy signals and
hold times.
Please make sure
your current
telephone
number is on
your Pepco
account so that our automated system can
record your outage when you call. Otherwise
you will be asked to stay on the line and
provide your telephone number and address to
report your outage. You can call us at 202-835-
1007 at any time to update your phone number.
Please have your account number available
when updating your phone number.
Call Pepco
to report your outage
at 1-877-PEPCO62. We then work downstream beginning with
any problems with the transmission or large
distribution lines and focus on restoring power
in a sequence that first considers public health
and safety, and gets power to the greatest
number of customers as quickly as possible. Just
as when it snows it is not possible to plow side
streets before the main thoroughfares are
cleared, during a power outage it is not
possible to correct problems at individual
locations before main substations and feeders
are restored.
Next, we work to restore secondary distribution
lines serving commercial areas, subdivisions and
neighborhoods, working our way down
through lines that serve smaller groups of
customers and finally to individual homes and
businesses.
7
6
How We Restore Power
Our restoration
process begins by
gathering
information and
determining the
extent of the
damage in the
affected areas.
We then proceed
using a system of
priorities that
have been
developed taking into account public safety,
community needs and the nature of the electric
distribution system.
We first work to correct potentially life-
threatening situations, such as downed live
wires and public health and safety facilities
without power. Crews responding to downed
wires may not be able to restore power to your
residence. They are
sent to make the
area safe until repair
crews can be
dispatched. We work
closely with Federal,
state and local
emergency
management
agencies to
constantly reassess
our restoration
priorities.
We first work to correct potentially
life-threatening situations, such as
downed live wires and public health
and safety facilities without power.
During a power outage it is not
possible to correct problems at
individual locations before main
substations and feeders are restored. 9
8
Transmission lines serving thousands
of customers,
Substation equipment,
Main distribution lines serving large
numbers of customers,
Secondary lines serving neighborhoods,
Service lines to individual homes
and businesses.
1
2
3
4
5
6
The Power Restoration Process
In the event our system is damaged by severe
weather, Pepco repairs equipment which will
restore the largest numbers of customers first.
Generally, the sequence is as follows:
Downed live wires or potentially
life-threatening situations and public
health and safety facilities without power.
1
2
3
4
5
6 11
10
Additionally, we take the following steps
to help reduce the incidence of outages:

In heavily wooded areas, we use special
tree wire and aerial cable to help protect
against outages
from falling tree limbs.

We use
lightning arresters
to provide a path
over which electrical surges can travel to the
ground harmlessly.

We use
grounded shield wire
just above
some power lines to shield those lines from
lightning strikes.

We install
animal guards
on
our equipment to
protect against
short circuits
caused by animals.

We
continually
upgrade our
facilities
to keep
pace with growth
in our area and
enhance reliability.
We continually upgrade
our faciliti