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the devastating aftermath of friday night storms. we're breaking into regular programming to bring you the pepco news conference, an update on the restoration of power. the president of pepco is giving us an update when we can expect to see the number of power outages drop down, a little bit under 600,000. >> we've been able to reduce that number by about 100,000 since that point. the breakdown currently is about 59,000, 190,000 in montgomery county and another 190,000 in prince george. crews are working around the clock. the restoration time provided is 11:00 p.m. on friday, july the

6th. that will represent restoration for the vast majority of our customers. so at least 90% of those customers will have their service restored by friday evening. for those customers that we feel will stretch into the weekend we will be providing restoration times wednesday evening. each time that we are able to make progress and we go out in the field and do the damage assessment and do the restoration activities, we will be able to provide a more definite restoration time for our customers. we've continued to seek additional resources from other utilities. as you know, this event took place, started out in the midwest pea came across the mid atlantic. at one point there about 3.8 million customers in those regions. with as many as 1 million in virginia alone. we continue to -- the challenge is, with all these utilities

being impacted, they need their resources as well so they have not been able to release those in the typical areas we could get resources from. fortunately we've been able to reach out to oklahoma, florida, missouri, georgia, and they have made commitments to bring those resources in. we're looking for them to come on to the system as early as tomorrow. we continue to do outreach for who should em assistance -- mutual assist departments as far away as canada to restore power as soon as possible. we are doing tree trimming to help. we are continuing these efforts and we ask for our cuss merse' -- cuss merse z --

customers' patience. but with this much damage, it will take time. i spent a lot of time over the last couple of years visiting many areas in montgomery company and prince george, and dc, all over the service area, and the damage is devastating. there's large trees that have crashed down on homes and cars and our utility poles. i've seen areas today where a tree came down and snapped poles and the road is completely blocked. we saw a home last night on old georgetown road that had been crushed by a tree. i understand the sensitivity with respect to our customers but i can assure you that recovery source that we -- every resource that we have, we will bring those time. the current time, we have about 1500 resources committed to

restoration of service for our customers. total for support personnel is about 2100. we made a total commitment and that commitment will continue over time. i will introduce mr. michael maxwell, vice president of asset management and he can give you a detailed explanation of the respiratory tore radiation pros, how we started, some of the work that we had to do regarding some of the supply feeds that were damaged. one other point i would really like to make before i turn the podium over to max is that a lot of our resources have kind of been behind the scenes at this point. i know there's been a concern that we don't see a lot of trucks out. we've been trying to restore infrastructure. without that being in place it doesn't make sense to continue along the way into the neighborhoods. but now that we've been able to

see your all -- secure all of those facilities, you will see a greater presence from those crews. it's not that they haven't been working. they have been working on other projects to really firm up the infra frack sure. -- infrastructure. so, max? >> thank you very much. i guess one of the things i wanted to point out, when it came to this particular storm we had a large number of substations on president first day or so that was without power. if you take a look at this sketch, i want to use this to highlight how this work. imagine 20 some odd substations, and this is sort of a representation of a substation. we have several of these across the pepco service territory. the sub takeses serve miles of

distribution lines down the roads and highway and by ways in the territory and into the neighborhoods serving homes t commercial establishments and residences. in this particular storm, a lot of our resources when we went to do the work here, we were operating at this side of the substation. if you can't get these the high side, or the supply side of the substation in service, you can't provide it down here, so we're talking about where the crews are working are miles away from where the customers are without power. as we are able to bring back supplies to the substations we began to pick up some amount much customer load. when i say that, we also -- you can imagine having damage all along the road as you are getting to the homes. so while we're working to get the supplies to the substations back up, you get the substations going and then you have to go -- and this is what's happening

now over the next several days -- is physical fixing the supply lines to the neighborhoods, the distribution lines themselves. that becomes a big part of the effort now. i know we are saying early on we were doing the damage assessment. while we're working and have crews working on the right of ways to bring the supply lines back in service we had crews going through the neighborhoods trying to i've where this damage is. the one thing we don't like to do when it comes to trying to resource service is send a set of five or six trucks to replace one fuse and send one truck and there's 10 policies in the street. it's -- poles in the street. so we have to prioritize. as they are going through, they will pick up customer load if he they can if they have the right resources in order to make the

restoration. but this is the first 24 hours we talked about in the damage assessment process and we're doing all of this at the same time. so it's a parallel path where weary storing customer load and to our substations and we're picking up customer load. once we have the additional resources that we're bringing from across the country as far as oklahoma, missouri and i 99 it's new brunswick, canada that we got a commitment, we'll have those crews and be able to assign them to the distribution circuits. and as we get into the neighborhood, pick up the customers. one of the things we're trying to do, both yesterday and today, making sure we get the water, the pumping plants up and running and getting the nursing homes and trying to get the assisted living facilities, get those identifies and get to those. let me be clear, if this is the

assisted living facility or the nursing home at this tail ends and we have damage here, there's nothing we can do until -- to get this nursing home or facility up and running until we get the infrastructure that supplies it up. we would love to be able to go straight there but it takes some time and effort to get this infrastructure in place to supply those customers. >> at this time i would like to open up to questions you might have. >> as you both know didn't didn't didn't dearn

dearn -- [ indiscernible ] >> priority behind profit. we not that crews are out working about how do you feel with this public relations issue right now that profits -- service? >> the focus right now is the restoration of service. our system has experienced great damage. i've been with the company 26 years now and i can only think of one or two occasions where the damage has been greater. if we go back to hurricane isabelle, we probably had about 535 customers out of -- 535,000 customers out, for that ice storm, and this isn't public relations. this is restores service customer by customer, circuit, by circuit and all we care about right now is restoring the reliability of service and the safety of our workers and the safety of our customers.

>> several people also let us know that -- restoration [ indiscernible ] -- are you giving that same time to everybody or are you staggering restoration? >> that is a global restoration time for all customers right now. as we continue to work through that restoration process and the assessment process and we have a better idea of what it's going to take to restore ser. as -- service, as mr. maxwell indicated on this drawing, there could be a customer priority. but if we have five snapped poles between that and that customer it will take a significant amount of time to restore that service. so as we get more resources on the system -- and we just received that commitment from canada -- and there's a bit of a travel issue for florida and oklahoma and missouri, but we

should see those resources coming into the system tomorrow and we'll be able to get going on it hard. >> so what does that mean [ indiscernible ] a lot of us didn't have functional traffic lights. >> a substation can broaden service to 10,000 or so customers and there's several supply feeds to make it hot and from that substation there distribution feeders that branch out into neighborhoods. until you can secure the substation, those distribution fees that can go out aren't of use. we are able to secure that. but we dough know further down the line there's other damage. a lot of the damage i have seen will take a bit of time. when i was out in ba these dah -- bethesda last night, i

saw snapped poles. with the additional assistance we will be receiving shortly, that will be helpful. again, we will continue to seek other resources but it's at the same time that bgu, who also has several thousand customers out and other utilities in this area, they are seeking the same help that we need. >> this is my last question. >> sure. >> last weekend you told my colleague [ indiscernible ] simply intentionally -- spoke to people on the street about how they said -- so what, go ahead and do it [ indiscernible ] power outage -- >> i'll start the answer and, mr. maxwell, he might want to ad something. actually the 3 million was probably closer to about three

to four billion, with a b. that's been stud deed a number of -- studied a number of times. as part of the our reliability, over the last several years we made it a commitment over a 5-year period to invest about $910 million to improving the infra stuck sure -- infra structure for our customers. in areas where we have done trimming and cable replacement and other things, replaced transformers, we've done everything we can, lightning arresters, animal guards, everything, but have not been able to do so because of the environmental conditions, then we look at selective undergrounding, but it's

expensive and the figure i quoted was just for the district of colombia and, in comparison to our maryland tear torety -- tear other tee, it's -- tear other tee territory, it's smaller. >> customers have been talking about rating and [ indiscernible ] >> right now we're focused on the restoration of our customers. that is paramount for everybody. we can address that usual somewhere down the road and the public service commission will address it. right now we have close to 400,000 customers out of service. it's hot outside. we're trying to do everything we can to restore service and that's the most important thing. >> what's the cost of -- [

indiscernible ] reliability storm -- not power -- as far as -- [ indiscernible ] no -- cleanup [ indiscernible ] -- >> every storm is different and it impacts us in a different way. in some cases it has to do with impact at substations. in some cases, it's feeders. last week we had a microburst and i will have to say my observation is, over time, the weather has become severe. we have 90 to 100 miles per hour winds that zero in on the area. i forget the name, the term they used for this, but about 70 miles per hour winds that came through on a line and knocked out millions of customers. comparatively speaking, you can't say it's a pepco issue. this started in indiana and

moved to ohio and came to west virginia. it's in new jersey, delaware, a catastrophic weather event that millions of individuals are experiencing right now. >> one more. >> sure. >> people are hearing -- [ indiscernible ] customers, so 90% of the customers that were out or 90% of all your customers [ indiscernible ] -- >> 90% of all our customers will be back in service by friday, 11:00 p.m. >> so that [ indiscernible ] -- >> the once that last power will be restored. >> by friday night? >> that's right. >> 10% of 400,000 -- or 440,000 people will still not have power into the weekend? >> that is the potential and that's what we're working towards and that's why we're

bringing in additional resources and that's why we work around the clock to restore service to our customers. if you want to go out with me, i can take you to some places and i can show you what i have seen. and i've seen people's homes destroyed and our infrastructure, that's fine. but people's lives have been impacted in a meaningful way and i want to stay focused on that. >> is there a 50% market [ indiscernible ] >> i'm sure this isn't the last time we're going to be chatting. as we go along through this process i'll be updating you each step of the way as we make progress. i'm looking forward to tomorrow and the next couple of days when these additional resources come on to the system because that will be able to advance this process. wean i've been out i've been with some of the damage assessors who are just really preparing the work as we see the other crews come in and really go at it for a long period of

time. the other concern is, you know, i've been in the studios enough lately and i'm always on before weather and i know there's an opportunity for another bad system to come in so that's something else we have to consider. but at the end of the day, everybody in this company is focused on restoring surface to our customers quickly and safely. >> a last one -- >> another last one? >> the heat is out there and that's putting a strain on the men and women working out there -- >> that's right. >> and i'm wondering if that's impacting the people outside working and [ indiscernible ] >> that's a good point and something that isn't discussed a whole lot. these individuals are working long shifts and the weather isn't ideal. there's a couple of staging areas where we provide supplies and hoe blade tell rooms for them -- hotel rooms for them.

but to be honest, there's not a whole lot of rest for them. during the course of the day we make sure they have coolers and stye hydrated, which is critical. they come back and check in and get some sleep and they are right back at it again. so i really appreciate what they do each and every day, not only the employees of pepco in the field but also the contractors that are away from their families for days at a time to support this effort. >> and -- [ indiscernible ] >> let me go over this real quick. >> website [ indiscernible ] just recent or [ indiscernible ] >> okay. the website is done, but we're looking into that right now.

i would say that we did experience a brief outage probably about an hour and 40 minutes the other day, but the app we have on the smart phones has been operational and i don't know if you had an opportunity to use that but, to me, it's been beneficial. you can report your outage and check on your outage and there's an outage map on that app. >> are you out of power? >> i haven't been home -- i can't remember when i left and i really don't know. at some point isle go back and figure it out -- i'll go back and figure it out. >> one more question. at some point do you think you [ indiscernible ] dearn need compensation, we're going to do something, because i [ indiscernible ] checking

into a hotel. at what point am i paying too much for somebody who is supposed to be providing service. >> it's an event outside of our control. if there's a negligent issue or maintenance issue, well, certainly we can't control mother nature. i would stay starting back in 2010 and moving into eye reap -- irene last year and the microburst, and i'm sympathetic, but we manage these issues. we didn't bring down the wires and trees. what we do is restore the power to our customers and that's what we are focusing on. >> and now [ indiscernible ] -- >> sure. >> parents and it's a whole [

indiscernible ] at what point is it too much? at some point [ indiscernible ] >> i'll say this, i was born and raised in dc and my family and friends are here and the same thing with this company, you know, we live in these communities too. these are our homes that we're working for and our neighbors and our families that we're working for. we can't control the weather. what we can do is we can control the response and we control the execution and the manner that we bring back service. and that's what we've been focused on. the last couple of years has been putting in improvements that will make this process go along quicker and smoother and also been doing maintenance work to improve reliability on a day-to-day basis. outside of that, i can't control the weather. i wish i could. but at the end of day we'll be filing a report with the

public service commission and we'll be doing an analysis an our performance and it's an ongoing process. we learn each time. if there's an opportunity for improvement, we'll take advantage of that. >> and [ indiscernible ] . >> i was expecting as much. >> and the [ indiscernible ] -- >> i can't go through the entire breakdown and i know the initial -- the initial request was for a thousand assistance crews. i know we moved from about 700 field resources to about 800 now we have 1500. can i i've exactly where they are all coming from right now? that's something i could get back to you with but i'm not sure that's important. the important fact is there are

between field resources and support personnel, there's '2100 resources working on the restoration of the power for our customers. >> and the [ indiscernible ] -- do you have a -- >> we are competing. that was the request, for 1,000. so what came out of that was about 175, to 200. everything we are asking for, everybody is asking for because we're all in the same position and we'll continue asking as other utilities are able to restore service to the customers and get their service area cleaned up and then they'll release crews and when those crews become available, we participate in what is called mutual assistance calls. we have been successful in bringing in crews from the southwest and now as far as

canada. >> and about [ indiscernible ] -- >> essentially that's correct. but the initial request was 1,000. and then the initial get was 175 to 200. but over time, there's been some additional utilities that have been able to pro vied us with additional resources. >> and then the next question [ indiscernible ] -- do you just -- in other words, in what ways [ indiscernible ] -- >> it is a complicating factor. we called it cold load pickup. when we tried to bring some of the feeders up, the last day or so, because folks had their airing turned on, when the power went out, when we tried to pick up the load, the breakers tripped back out. we had to go out and do additional work to isolate some

of that. that was a bit of a problem. if we could get the folks that are without power to turn off the lights and turn off some of the things that are in the on position, that would help with the stability of the system when we try to bring back those feeders. >> the [ indiscernible ] -- can you point to the something now that -- [ indiscernible ] -- but something that made progress -- [ indiscernible ] -- >> we did a tremendous amount of work on some of the supply lines. there's some substations, when i have driven across the territory, i can say i'm glad we did that, there's some places, but we probably would have had more substations without power, and i'm pleased of the trimming we've done and happy to free up some work in montgomery and

others. there's some areas that i've heard that people didn't go out in the storm that weren't used to going out, but i haven't heard that an nick dottily. >> this was an extreme event and the work we are doing is not necessarily for an extreme event. we talked at length about blue sky outages. those are things we don't see as much. but when mother nature did to us what it did today, and it did it to other utilities out west, we aren't the only once, and this was -- ones, and this was a unique event. there's a total of 100 yaks substations in the -- 186 substations