SMECO Gives Power Outage Update

UPDATE JANUARY 5: As of 9:33 am Wednesday, January 5, SMECO has 618 active outages and 6,677 customers without power.

UPDATE: As of 8:18 pm on Tuesday, January 4, SMECO’s outage map showed about 11,680 people without service.

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative has been working throughout Tuesday, January 4, to restore electric service to members who were affected by weather-related power outages.

“At our peak on Monday afternoon at 3 pm, we had more than 45,000 customers without power. We were able to restore service to thousands of people on Monday and had about 24,000 without power at 11:30 pm. Some crews worked through the night and all available line workers were back on the job this morning. As of 11:15 am on Tuesday, January 4, we have about 18,000 people without service,” said SMECO spokesman Tom Dennison.

SMECO’s line crews, along with contractors from Sumter, Penn Line, AUI Power, and CW Wright are working to restore power in areas affected by outages. In accordance with SMECO’s power restoration policy, repairs that will restore service to the most people in the least amount of time are prioritized. Crews work to make sure substation feeders and major distribution lines are cleared of downed trees and limbs and are operational before making repairs to tap lines and individual service lines. Currently, four of SMECO’s feeders remain offline.

“Heavy wet snow, coupled with frigid temperatures and ice, may cause additional outages and will slow down restoration work,” Dennison said. “Most feeders have been restored, but the remaining outages will take a while to repair. In addition, for each repair we make, just a few people will have their power turned back on. Although one line may have several trees or limbs down, each incident has to be repaired individually, and making repairs to these types of incidents is time consuming.”

Anyone can view the status of SMECO power outages, find helpful information, or report an outage on the co-op’s outage map.

Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative is a customer-owned electric cooperative providing electricity to more than 150,000 services in southern Prince George’s County, Charles County, St. Mary’s County, and Calvert County.

To learn more about SMECO, visit its Leader member page. Visit SMECO on their Facebook Page and Twitter.