AC Electric Responds To Report Criticizing Response To Massive Outages
By Alexandria Hoff
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- When thousands of Verizon customers in South Jersey lost service in the hours following the destructive June 23rd storm, so did Atlantic City Electric.
"Verizon Wireless is one of our carriers that we use for our data transfers so when that went down it did impede us initially," said A.C. Electric's Regional President, Vince Maione.
Without a back-up response time suffered according to a report released this week by the New Jersey Public Utility Board.
Last month Frannie James, a Deptford Township resident waited almost a week for his power to return.
"I stayed here for six days. It was peaceful and quiet but very disturbing," he said.
Disturbing, in part, because some customers felt that they weren't getting honest predictions from the company regarding when their service would be restored.
"If you tell them 12-o'clock midnight that night and the same thing for three days after and it doesn't come on, that's where the issues came up at," said Deptford Township Mayor Paul Medany, who worked to give his residents access to community centers and device charging stations during the outage.
In the report the Utility Board stated, in part;
"...[Atlantic City Electric] should have informed local communities more quickly about the extent of damage and challenges being faced in terms of an extended recovery"
It should also be noted that Atlantic City Electric was the hardest hit utility company by far, with infrastructure damage that exceeded the demand following Superstorm Sandy.
AC Electric said Friday that they thank their customers for their patience and the kindness they showed field technicians.
"They treated them like Heros," added Maione, "Obviously we want to make improvements to our processes and if we can do something different that is what we are looking for."
Both Atlantic City Electric along with PSE&E have vowed to increase preparedness and improve communication methods.
