Technology Upgrades Will Give PECO Energy Customers Estimates About When Power Will be Restored

When a customer's lights go out there are two questions that pop into mind. Where are the flashlights? And, how long will I be without power? PECO Energy can't help with the first question, but software enhancements to PECO's interactive voice response system will now provide estimates for how long the lights will be out.

With the addition of that information, customers will now be able to get an estimated restoration time the first time they call to report a power outage, instead of repeatedly calling to find out when power will be restored. The system will be activated by the first call to PECO, which will be recorded in the company's outage management system. Once the outage is noted in the system, subsequent callers affected by the same event will get the restoration estimate.

This enhancement comes in direct response to customers' request for more information about outages, whether they are caused by storms, accidents or other emergencies.

"When an outage occurs, it is essential to provide a restoration time to our customers as quickly and accurately as we can - particularly in the event of extended outages during storms," said Denis O'Brien, PECO president. "Faster information about power restoration is part of a larger strategy to improve outage communications."

The enhancements to PECO's interactive voice response system are the latest of several recent upgrades to enhance service to customers. In September, PECO completed an $800,000 upgrade to its automated meter reading system. Meters are now set up to signal PECO in the event of an outage. As a result, PECO's dispatchers can conduct on-demand meter readings to determine if electricity is on or off at a particular house, several homes or a circuit, shaving minutes off of the amount of time it takes crews to respond.

Based in Philadelphia, PECO Energy is an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation. PECO serves 1.5 million electric and 460,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. In 2004, the company delivered 37.5 million megawatt hours (mWh) of electricity and 87.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas to residential, business and institutional customers. PECO's energy delivery services generated $4.49 billion in revenue for Exelon. Founded in 1881, PECO is one of the Greater Philadelphia Region's most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations.