Atlantic City Electric experienced a fire at the company’s Lake Avenue substation in Wildwood, N.J., which impacted electric service to approximately 24,000 customers in the Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, North Wildwood, West Wildwood and Lower Township areas. Atlantic City Electric restored electric service on Sunday, July 9, at 4:24 a.m., for all customers who were impacted by the fire.
The safety of our customers, the community, emergency responders and our employees is always most important. We know this has been a challenging event for our customers and those who are vacationing on the island, and we thank them for their patience and understanding as we worked to restore service.
We have installed a significant amount of temporary equipment, including mobile transformers and large generators, that are now being utilized to power our customers. As our investigation continues, we will have a better understanding of the full extent of the necessary repairs and will then work to install more permanent devices and equipment at the substation and to the local energy grid. Currently, there is no confirmed time frame for the completion of this work.
Additional brief temporary interruptions may be needed as we continue balancing customer energy demand across the system and as more permanent devices are brought back online. We are doing everything possible to reduce the impacts of these interruptions on our customers and the local community. And we will communicate with customers if we need to temporarily disconnect service. We appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers and the community as we continue to make these permanent repairs.
A thorough and comprehensive investigation into this incident is ongoing. This investigation includes support from third-party experts to assist us in determining the cause of the fire. At this time, there is no indication that the cause of the incident was a result of foul play.
