BGE crews finishing power restoration for Maryland customers affected by damaging winds
BGE anticipated 99% of the customers who lost electricity during Sunday's powerful wind storm would have their power restored by 11 p.m. on Tuesday. The wind gusts knocked down trees and powerlines in Maryland.
As of 11 p.m., about 2,000 customers were still without power, according to BGE's power outage map. Most of the power outages happened in Baltimore County.
BGE says crews have worked around the clock to restore power to 125,000 customers, which officials say represents 90% of the outages.
The utility company says 230,000 customers avoided a power outage.
Assist from other utility contractors
Roughly 1,800 repair crews were out on Tuesday putting the final touches on the restoration efforts.
Steve Singh, from BGE, said the extra support from other contractors helped to accelerate the effort to fix downed powerlines.
"We're getting support from neighboring states, from other states, other utilities, to help us get this power back on," Singh said.
Singh said the last time crews saw an outage this big was in August 2024, and crews are working faster than anticipated.
"We're overachieving, meaning we're doing better than historical models would have predicted," Singh said.
Singh says restoring power is only half the effort for these workers.
"First, you have to make sure that it's de-energized," Singh said. "Then, whether it's fixing a broken pole, replacing a broken pole, putting up the wire making sure it's all put together safely, four to six hours."