WE’RE UPGRADING OUR CUSTOMER INFORMATION SYSTEM

We’re currently upgrading our customer information system. During this time, some of our self-service features may be unavailable or have limited functionality. Here’s some information regarding services that are affected.

Mobile App

Our mobile app will still be available to report outages and view outage maps; however, there may be a few hours throughout this period during which these features will become unavailable. During that time, please call customer service at 1-800-642-3780 if you need to report an outage.

Additionally, you’ll still be able to pay your bill through the mobile app. Please note, your account balance may not be updated in the app until our full transition is complete on or around January 5, 2015.

My Account

My Account will have limited functionality during our transition and your most recent energy use information will not be available.

You’ll still have access to the following self-service features on My Account:

• View past energy use information
• View and pay your bill
• Reset your password

Customers who are not currently signed up for My Account will be unable to do so until after our transition is completed.

Customer Service Call-In

Some self-service features normally available through our customer service number are also unavailable. You can still call us to report an emergency situation or outage, and to make a payment. Additionally, customer service representatives will be available to assist you stop, start or transfer service, investigate billing issues and discuss third party supplier information. To speak with a representative about your account, please call during normal business hours, Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

We appreciate your patience during this transition. For more information about this upgrade, visit atlanticcityelectric.com/accountfaq.

Get Free Energy-Saving Trees

Atlantic City Electric and the Arbor Day Foundation are offering free trees to help you conserve energy. Trees are available on a first-come, first-serve basis from March 20 through June 6, while supplies last. Distribution is limited to two, 2-to-4 foot trees per customer. To get your free trees, visit www.arborday.org/ace today.

Properly planted trees help reduce energy use through summer shading and by slowing winter winds. As your trees grow, they will have the potential to lower energy bills by 15 to 30 percent.

To help you plant your tree in the right place, the Arbor Day Foundation offers you an online mapping tool that will:

• Map your house
• Show you the right trees for your area
• Locate the best place to plant them
• Calculate how much you can expect to save

To learn more about this program, please visit www.arborday.org/ace.

Be Aware of Scams

We want to alert our residential and commercial customers to several scams taking place in our area.

Fake Invoices

Some scammers, posing as third-party energy suppliers, are sending fake utility bills via email to customers, asking them to click on an enclosed link. It is suspected that, by clicking the link, your computer could become infected with a virus or malware.

For your protection, we ask that you pay your utility bill by going to our website, mailing us the hard copy of the remittance portion of your invoice or visiting one of our Customer Courtesy Centers. Do not open any email asking for payment unless it was sent by us or your respective third-party energy supplier.

Reloadable Debit Cards

Scammers are also contacting customers and telling them that their electric service will be shut off for non-payment unless they purchase a reloadable debit card (Green Dot MoneyPak or Vanilla card).

Victims are instructed to call a phone number and provide the card’s accountlmarva number and unique serial number. Once the scammer obtains the card’s identifying information, the value is stolen.

Commercial customers are also being told to use the same method of payment to have a new meter installed. The caller claims that the state has mandated these meter changes. This is not true.

Always Use Caution

Many utility companies, including Atlantic City Electric, contact customers in person or via phone for various reasons. If someone claims to represent our company or another entity, it is important that you verify the employee’s identification—especially if they are requesting immediate payment. When addressing past due accounts, we always offer multiple payment options.

Our employees always carry an official company identification card. If proper identification cannot be produced when asked, you should notify the police or the company with whom the individual claims to be associated. Similarly, if someone calls claiming to represent a company, ask them to verify their identity and affiliation.

If you have any doubt about the validity of a person claiming to represent Atlantic City Electric, please call us immediately at 1-800-642-3780.

Help Is Available for High Winter Bills

This month’s extremely cold temperatures mean your heating system has been working overtime. As a result, you may notice your electric bill is higher than usual. We have several payment options and tips to help you keep your account current.

Special Payment Arrangements: We offer customized payment arrangements aimed at bringing your account up-to-date over a mutually agreeable period of time.

Budget Billing: You can avoid seasonal peaks in electric bills by dividing your payments evenly over the course of the entire year. You’ll know what to expect in your bill, making budgeting easier.

Energy Assistance Programs: Some federal energy assistance may be available to you through state and local assistance programs. Customers can receive more information by calling customer service at 1-800-642-3780, visiting www.nj211.org or calling 211 – New Jersey’s non-emergency helpline, available 24/7 throughout the state.

Many of these arrangements can be made directly over the phone by calling Atlantic City 1-800-642-3780 and following the simple instructions or by speaking with a customer service representative.

We have useful tools and technology which can also help you manage your electric use. You can logon to My Account at atlanticcityelectric.com to see your energy use history and identify ways to save energy. My Account also provides energy saving tips and calculators.

We care about our customers and want you to know you can always call us for help.

Give the Gift of Energy

The holiday season is almost here! Avoid the shopping frenzy and give your loved one a Gift of Energy instead. It is the simplest way to help a relative, friend, or colleague with their monthly expenses.

Giving a Gift of Energy is no different than making a payment on someone’s account. All you need is the customer’s name and address – not an account number – to purchase the Gift of Energy.

You can purchase a Gift of Energy for a customer at one of our Walk-In Service Centers (listed below), or on our website, where a Gift of Energy contact form is available. Once the form is submitted, a customer care representative will contact you and complete the transaction via telephone. We will also send you a free holiday greeting card that can be used to notify the customer of your generosity or you may keep the gift anonymous.

You can purchase the Gift of Energy at any of the following locations:

Atlantic City
2430 Atlantic Ave
Hours: Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Cape May Court House
420 Route 9
Hours: Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Egg Harbor Twp
6814 Tilton Rd.
Hours: Monday – Friday
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Millville
1101 Route 47 (Delsea Dr., Rhema Plaza)
Hours: Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Turnersville
5101 & Rt. 42, Store 3 Town Center Plaza
Hours: Monday – Friday
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

We Can Help with Winter Energy Bills

Winter is just around the corner. A drop in temperature typically means you’ll be turning up your heat which can lead to higher energy bills. We understand that higher energy bills can be a major concern. If you have difficulty paying your heating bills this winter, we’re here to help.

The first thing to do is call Customer Care at 202-833-7500 before your bill becomes unmanageable. We can recommend payment arrangements where appropriate and can discuss alternative payment plans such as our Budget Billing program that can help you avoid seasonal cost spikes and keep monthly bills level.

Our Extended Payment Date Plan is for customers whose main source of income is from government programs. Since assistance does not arrive until the first of each month, qualified customers whose bill due date is before the 5th of the month may be granted an extension of their due date.

Under the Deferred Payment Arrangement Plan customers experiencing a temporary financial hardship may be eligible to make installment payments on their current bill and a portion of any unpaid balance.

Felecia Greer
Customer Advocate

Hurricane Sandy Restoration Efforts: One Year Later

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy’s landfall in New Jersey, which left millions of residents without power and caused extensive damage to homes, businesses and properties.

With every storm, the facts and figures get tallied, but the story that often goes untold is exactly how the restoration effort is organized, managed and implemented.

In the days leading up to the storm, our teams worked closely with weather agencies to follow the path of the storm. Because the storm was slow moving and it was  forecasted with a high degree of accuracy, a good deal of pre-planning was able to be done, including making the decisions early to activate Mutual Assistance (which allows outside crews to provide storm assistance), mobilize employees, review safety procedures, secure utility contractors, check inventories, secure the staging area, retain additional call center support, coordinate with emergency management agencies and communicate with customers, government officials and the media.

Power restoration began in full force after Hurricane Sandy left the southern New Jersey area. At the peak of the restoration effort, we mobilized more than 2,800 employees, contractors and restoration crews to support response:

• Nearly 1,300 internal and contract line and underground personnel
• 538 tree removal personnel
• About 350 customer call representatives to answer customer calls
• About 247 assessors to identify storm damage
• Around 460 support personnel who are working on special storm response roles

To keep customers informed, we proactively updated our digital channels (social media, mobile app and website) with our restoration progress, issued continual press updates, held frequent press conferences and briefings as well as conducted numerous media interviews. We received more than 92,000 customer calls during the storm restoration effort with more than 99 percent of calls being answered in less than 30 seconds.

As a result of Hurricane Sandy, we replaced approximately 220 transformers, 190 utility poles and more than 286,300 feet of wire, among other infrastructure improvements.

Visit our Hurricane Sandy Restoration Efforts slideshow to view more photos.

Working with Offices of Emergency Management

A vital part of our ability to meet the needs of our customers and restore power safely during major events is our partnerships with county and state Offices of Emergency Management (OEM). OEMs are connecting points for diverse resources like government, emergency service organizations, first responders, public utilities and other companies, as well as dedicated volunteers. They ensure a comprehensive approach to addressing natural and manmade disasters through effective planning and implementation. The OEMs are led by experts in disaster recovery.

Activation

When a county and/or the state OEM activates its Emergency Operations Center, a call for staffing is initiated. We provide staffing through our Second Role Program where every employee in the company takes on another responsibility during events with extensive power outages. Company employees are trained and assigned to OEMs in the role of External Liaison to streamline communication and work issues. The External Liaisons remain activated with 24-hour coverage for as long as the Emergency Operations Center remains active.

The partnership helps both sides. The OEM can more efficiently get status updates on power restoration and can ensure critical issues like hospitals without power or wires down are being addressed. We can obtain support like clearing snow or debris from a road so linemen can navigate to the source of an outage.

Being Prepared

To be collaborative and efficient during an emergency, we work with the county and state OEMs year round. There are emergency preparedness drills and exercises, best practices are discussed, OEM visits for liaisons are conducted to ensure familiarity with the facility, connections and communications are tested with equipment like laptops, cell phones and the emergency radio.. We meet face-to-face with our emergency partners at least quarterly to help strengthen the relationship and increase the comfort level of working together. We also use these one-on-one meetings with our partners to ask for feedback on our processes in order to find opportunities for improvement.

The priority during any restoration effort is to restore power as quickly and safely as possible and provide our customers and stakeholders with the most accurate information possible. Strong partnerships with the OEMs help to make that possible.

High Winds Batter Coastal Areas

We are restoring service today to customers affected by the wintry mix of high wind and rain.

The hardest hit areas are in Cape May and Atlantic counties as a result of strong wind gusts along the coast.

In one instance during the afternoon, service was interrupted to about 19,000 customers in parts of Ventnor, Margate and Longport and the southern end of Atlantic City. In Stone Harbor, powerful gusts knocked down numerous poles, which may require multiple days to repair.

As of 4:30 p.m., crews had restored service to more than 22,000 customers across the service territory, with fewer than 35,000 still out of service.

Storms can bring down tree limbs onto power lines, interrupting electric service. We will adjust its workforce to respond to any outages that may occur.

We urge customers to stay clear of any downed wires and report them to the company by calling 800-833-7476, or report through the utility’s mobile app or website.

For more information visit atlanticcityelectric.com and follow Atlantic City Electric at http://twitter.com/ACElecConnect.

We Are Prepared for a Winter Storm

We are closely monitoring a wintry mix of hazardous weather that is expected to reach our region this evening. The National Weather Service is predicting that the Atlantic City Electric service area will experience rain, high winds and snow into Thursday. Storms can bring down tree limbs onto power lines, causing power outages. We will schedule and adjust our workforce to respond to any outages that may occur.

We urge customers to stay safe and offers the below preparation and safety tips.

Preparation Tips

• If you or someone you know uses life-support equipment that requires electricity to operate, identify a location with emergency power capabilities and make plans to go there during a prolonged outage.
• Assemble an emergency storm kit. Include a battery-powered radio or television, flashlight, a first-aid kit, battery-powered or windup clock, extra batteries, special needs items, an insulated cooler and a list of important and emergency phone numbers.
• Keep at least a three-day supply of non-perishable foods and bottled water and have a hand-operated can opener available.
• Have a telephone with a cord or cell phone to use as a backup. Cordless telephones require electricity to operate, and won’t work if there is an outage.
• Protect your electronic equipment. Unplug sensitive electronics or plug computers and other sensitive equipment into surge suppressors, and consider a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for temporary battery backup power.
• Turn off power to flood-prone basement appliances if it is safe to do so. However, if you have an electrically operated sump pump, you should not turn off your power.
• Fill your gas tank so you can run your automobile to charge mobile devices. Be sure to open garage doors using manual controls to run the vehicle safely.

Safety Tips

• Tune in to local news broadcasts for the latest weather and emergency information.
• Follow the advice of your local emergency management officials.
• If you need to use a portable generator, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and use only when necessary. Don’t overload it and turn it off at night while you sleep and when you are away from home.
• Take cover if necessary.
• Stay away from downed wires. Assume any downed wire is energized.

To report an outage or downed wire, call 1-800-833-7476 or report through our mobile app or our website.