PHILADELPHIA (April 13, 2007) – PECO will spend more than $13.4 million in service reliability projects this year that will benefit roughly 35,000 Bucks County customers.

Across southeastern Pennsylvania, PECO will invest more than $254 million in system upgrades and capital improvements. The full capital plan includes more than two-dozen major projects in Philadelphia and the suburbs, as well as customer-targeted reliability enhancement work, and increased automation for reduced outage duration. In addition, funds will be used for preventive maintenance such as circuit patrols along many of the company’s 2,200 distribution circuits using infrared imaging and right-of-way maintenance tree trimming.  PECO also will expand its use of lightning arrestors and animal guards to prevent a large number of weather and animal-related outages.

Locally, some of the larger PECO projects are:

• More than $10.6 million to trim trees along nearly 1,100 miles of aerial wire, benefiting customers primarily in Bensalem, Bristol, Doylestown, Lower Makefield, Middletown, Morrisville, Newtown, Northampton, Warminster, Warrington and Yardley. Such maintenance helps PECO prevent tree-related service interruptions—especially during storms—and reduce the length of the interruptions when they do occur. PECO has found that areas where tree clearance work was completed experience 39 percent fewer outages due to vegetation in the year after scheduled work.
• Upgrades of more than $2.1 million to substations in Neshaminy and Warrington to meet growing energy needs in those areas and the surrounding communities. Substations tap into high-voltage transmission lines fed from power plants to boost local supply and then convert that power into lower voltage for distribution to local communities.
• Replacement of more than 3,900 feet of underground gas lines in the Bensalem, Bristol, Falls and Warrington areas.
• Additionally, 14 local circuits have been targeted in PECO’s “top priority program” this year for reliability improvements that serve customers in Buckingham, Middletown, Neshaminy, Newtown, Warrington and Woodbourne. In this program, PECO targets 5-10 percent of its “under-performing” circuits for engineering analysis and enhancements.
  

“Our customers count on us to keep the lights on and the natural gas flowing, no matter if it’s 90 degrees or 9 degrees outside,” said Bill Sullivan, PECO regional operations director. “That is a responsibility that we take very seriously. These investments enable us to meet our customers’ expectations for safe, reliable energy service.”

PECO also has allotted $62 million in capital investments for upgrades and expansion of its suburban natural gas delivery network, an increase of $2 million over last year. Generally, the gas system upgrades get underway in the spring with projects slated for completion prior to the start of the next heating season. 

In recent years, PECO has decreased the duration of outages systemwide for all customers in three of the last four years. The shorter outage duration results from the increased use of technology on distribution circuits, better tools for dispatching field forces and improved response time by field personnel. Customers—on average—experienced only one interruption last year, placing the company in the top 25 percent of utilities nationwide.

PECO serves 238,000 electric and 81,000 natural gas customers in Bucks County, and operates service centers in Doylestown, Levittown and Warminster.