see outage map here
The Pepco outage map currently lists Active Outages as 23 with Total Customers Affected 377.
Update: 5pm: “[AlertDC] PEPCO reports the utility repairs are complete and power has been restored to the affected customers in the northwest area of the District of Columbia.”
Update: “[AlertDC] PEPCO reports a power outage in the northwest area of the District of Columbia, near Dupont Circle, affecting approximately 1,729 customers. The cause of the outage is under evaluation with an undetermined time for restoration. Customers with questions may contact PEPCO on 1-877-737-2662.”
Thanks to a reader for passing on from the Commissioners of Dupont ANC2B:
“We’re sorry many of you have been by power outages on and off since Thursday morning. ANC 2B has been in constant contact with PEPCO, Mayor Bowser’s office, and Councilmember Pinto’s office. We’ve heard from many people that they are not receiving communications from PEPCO or DC government on this matter, leaving you literally and figuratively in the dark.
Here’s what’s going on:
On Wednesday night PEPCO had an equipment failure and fire at their 22nd St Substation, leaving 3 of 4 feeders down. PEPCO began asking large consumers of power in the neighborhood (including WMATA) to reduce their usage to reduce strain on the system. That wasn’t enough and starting on Thursday, “the decision was made to proactively turn off customers to prevent a more serious situation and to prevent a total system overload.” PEPCO was able to restore power to all but one building that day.
Since then, PEPCO has twice turned off power to segments of the neighborhood (including this morning) as part of their repairs. PEPCO tells me “This work is expected to continue through July 30 and there is a risk of additional customers outages until all permanent repairs are completed.” 2B commissioners continue to advocate that PEPCO prioritize maintenance of power to residential buildings.
Why haven’t you heard from PEPCO or DC gov?
Flawed systems that undercount residents in apartment buildings. PEPCO maintains contact info only for “customers.” In many apartment and condo buildings, the customer is a management company, so residents may not be alerted. DC government also only sends alerts through their AlertDC system when 2,500 customers lose power. We know that well more than 2,500 people have lost power and have been advocating for DC gov to use the AlertDC system.”
“Dear PoPville,
Can you post an update about the Dupont blackout? At 20th and N, we lost power for another 7 hours on Saturday and we just lost power again this morning. No update from Pepco or our councilmember about what’s going on. Neither publicly acknowledged the outage yesterday and no one has given any answers on what’s going on. It’s hard enough for everyone dealing with the heat, but for those of us with medical conditions that use electronic devices, it’s really dangerous.”
Another reader also shared: “Aaaand the power in my building went out again last night.”