There’s been a recent surge in storms, and with this comes an increased chance for service disruptions and costly repairs. At Pepco, we’re committed to doing more than just responding to these challenges; we’re actively investing in a stronger, safer, and more reliable energy system that works for your home or business year-round, no matter the forecast. 

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and by keeping them connected to reliable service, we help students focus on homework, maintain comfortable indoor temperatures for seniors, and keep energy flowing to small businesses, along with other important everyday things.   

In the short term, improvements in reliability result in fewer outages and faster restoration times, and in the long term, these projects save customers money and improve community well-being and economic stability. 

Below are a few projects that are part of our infrastructure update efforts: 

• Capital Grid – A 10-year strategy to strengthen the resiliency and reliability of the District’s energy grid by modernizing aging infrastructure while creating a smarter energy system. The upgraded grid will support the city’s continued growth, accommodate more customer-generated power and have built-in technologies that help the District meet its clean energy goals. 

• District of Columbia Power Line Undergrounding (DC PLUG) – A multi-year program focused on the underground placement of the most vulnerable distribution power lines, targeting improved resiliency and reliability in the face of increasingly severe storms.  

• Downtown Distribution Resupply Project – Installing a new distribution conduit system in the northwest quadrant of the downtown area of the District of Columbia. This work involves installing new distribution lines to connect the the company’s F Street and L Street substations, which will support and facilitate the rebuild of both substations and increase the energy capacity downtown. 

• Underground Upgrades in Maryland – Replacing and upgrading existing underground powerlines in parts of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties to help improve system reliability in Adelphi, Oxon Hill, Gaithersburg, and Montgomery Village.  

• White Flint Substation – Constructing a new substation in the rapidly growing North Bethesda/White Flint area to enhance reliability, modernize our electrical infrastructure and help meet increasing energy needs in the community.  

• G Street, Georgetown, and National Mall 4kV Conversions – Continuously converting 4kV to 13kV systems in various locations to improve feeder reliability, enable alternative energy hosting capacity, and EV penetration.  

The results of these ongoing projects speak for themselves. In 2024, customers experienced record numbers, with crews averaging a safe restoration of service within 39 minutes when outages occurred. These ongoing efforts to modernize the local energy grid have also resulted in a 57 percent decrease in outages for customers over the past 10 years. 

Our commitment to reliability and modernization is ongoing, and we’ll continue to push for even greater innovations to ensure the best service possible. To learn more about our reliability efforts and projects, visit pepco.com/Reliability.