SAN DIEGO, Nov. 15, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) today unveiled a Web module that will provide customers with up-to-date information on electric outages throughout the San Diego region.
The state-of-the-art Web module, posted on www.sdge.com, will enable customers to find out when an outage started, how long it is likely to last, how many customers are affected, and often the cause. At the beginning of an outage the restoration estimate will be based on how long it has taken to repair similar outages in the past. That estimate may be revised after an on-site inspection and once again after repairs are under way.
"SDG&E's goal is to provide safe and reliable power," said David Geier, vice president of electric transmission and distribution. "Unfortunately, sometimes outages do occur. When those happen, we want our customers to have the most current information available to plan their day around an unexpected interruption of their energy supply."
The Web site will provide updates several times an hour based on the same information used by SDG&E to schedule repairs to the system. The data will include towns and neighborhoods affected, but will not give specific street boundaries as a security measure.
Even if customers are not able to gain access to the Internet from home because of an outage, laptop computers, calls to friends or family in other parts of the region, Internet cafes and office computers will provide many customers with alternate access methods.
"Our Web site usage more than doubled during last year's firestorms," said Geier. "Even though many people were evacuated from their homes, they were able to check on restoration status by visiting www.sdge.com."
Updates to the Web site during emergencies may be slowed as SDG&E assesses all the damage before providing estimates, said Geier.
SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.2 million consumers through 1.3 million electric meters and more than 800,000 natural gas meters. The company's service territory encompasses 4,100 square miles in San Diego and southern Orange counties. Exceptional customer service is a priority of SDG&E as it seeks to enhance the region's quality of life. SDG&E is a regulated subsidiary of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE). Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company. To learn more, go to www.sdge.com.