Delmarva Power enhances service reliability and system resiliency

Each year, Delmarva Power identifies a set of electric distribution circuits to prioritize for upgrade to enhance service for thousands of its residential and business customers. These circuits, called priority feeders, receive targeted upgrades to help fortify the local energy grid against ever-increasing severe weather and powerful storms, and improve service reliability for customers.

Through data-driven analysis, company engineers identify and prioritize energy distribution circuits within the Delmarva Power service area that have experienced elevated levels of interruption during the past three years and are not performing at the expected level. Over the past three years, crews have upgraded more than 30 distribution circuits in about 25 different municipalities in Sussex, Kent and New Castle counties in Delaware, and Cecil, Harford,  Somerset and Worcester counties in Maryland.

To further modernize the local energy grid, Delmarva Power is installing new, advanced electric equipment including switches, reclosers, fuses, animal guards and several miles of new aerial wire as part of this initiative to help minimize the number of affected customers if an outage does occur. Crews are also installing innovative technologies to improve system reliability, such as specialized equipment that can automatically restore service or isolate damage, leading to faster restoration.

Additional reliability enhancement work Delmarva Power performs year-round includes trimming trees, installing steel utility poles, placing animal protection devices on equipment, building new substations and installing new equipment at existing substations, building new underground equipment, and installing stronger, tree-resistant aerial cable.

These energy grid enhancements are part of Delmarva Power’s broader strategic effort to modernize and strengthen the local energy grid, making it smarter, stronger and cleaner for customers. These upgrades continue to improve reliability for customers by reducing the frequency and duration of outages. Delmarva Power customers experienced a second straight year of the lowest frequency of electric outages ever in 2020, equal to 2019. Over the past 10 years, energy system upgrades and innovative new technologies have reduced the frequency of electric outages by 53 percent for Delmarva Power customers and communities.

To learn more, go to delmarva.com/Reliability.