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Making Your Electric System More Resilient

ABOUT

About

The DC Power Line Undergrounding (DC PLUG) initiative is a partnership between the District and Pepco to improve the reliability and (resiliency) of the District of Columbia energy grid by placing select feeders underground in Wards 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8.

The DC PLUG initiative has a long history, dating back to 2012 when then D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray established the Mayor’s Power Line Undergrounding Task Force (Task Force) following severe storms that caused days-long outages for portions of the District of Columbia. The Task Force determined that improvements to the District of Columbia’s electric distribution system to enhance its resiliency and reduce power outages caused by storms would require new investment. Pepco and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) proposed what would become the DC PLUG initiative in response to the findings of the Task Force.

Following the resolution of legal challenges to the program, current D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed amended legislation into law allowing DDOT and Pepco to move forward with the DC PLUG initiative in May of 2017. DDOT and Pepco submitted their application for approval of the First Biennial Underground Infrastructure Improvement Projects Plan (Biennial Plan) to the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia on July 3, 2017. The Public Service Commission approved the joint application on Nov. 9, 2017.  In 2019, the 2nd Biennial Plan was approved and in 2021, the 3rd Biennial Plan was approved.

Since the approval of the First Biennial Plan, the DC PLUG team has engaged customers, community and district businesses regarding the project, hosted semi-annual meetings for stakeholders, and executed community outreach activities per the DC PLUG education plan.

11

Engineering

Phase

1

Construction Procurement Phase

6

Construction

Phase

2

Complete

PROJECTS

Feeders

Ward 3

Ward 4

Ward 5

Ward 7

Ward 8