Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The chopper was performing an annual maintenance check of PECO lines and towers throughout the area on Tuesday.
Levittown residents took to Levittown Patch's Facebook page to ask what the deal was with a helicopter hovering around the area. "What's going on with the choppers on the parkway, by Crabtree?" posted Linda Wilkes, one of five separate posts on the matter. An operator at the Lower Bucks County police dispatch station said it was a PECO helicopter, an explanation later confirmed by PECO spokesperson Fred Maher. "We do annual inspections of more than 2,700 miles of lines in our territory," said Maher. "We look for any cracks or other problems that may not be visible from a streetside view."
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Two 29-year-olds have been arrested by a police task force in connection with an alleged copper theft in Levittown.
A police task force made up of officers from several departments arrested a Bristol Township man and a Falls woman in connection with the theft of copper from a PECO substation. Jamie Lynn Brown and Jason Pallis, both 29, were apprehended by authorities and are accused of stealing copper wiring from Middletown’s Durham substation on Oxford Valley Road in November, according to court records filed last week. Police said the duo cut a hole in fence at the substation with bolt cutters and stole the copper ground wire. Between the property damage and missing copper, PECO took a hit of $7,000, authorities said. Copper ground wire is used to protect life and safeguard power grid by acting as a safe path for excess electricity to disperse. It is …
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Customers purchase pre-paid debit cards that are then drained by fraudsters, the company said.
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Thursday, January 17
A scam in which PECO customers are misled into purchasing pre-paid debit cards which are then drained of funds is targeting the Philadelphia region, the electric and gas utility said Thursday. In the scam, customers are contacted by persons who claim to work for PECO and informed that they must make an immediate payment in order to avoid their electricity being shut off. The phony employee then instructs the customer to purchase a pre-paid debit card from a convenience store or similar location, then to provide that card's number. The fraud operators then drain the funds on the card. “We want to make our customers aware of this scam so they can protect themselves from becoming victims of this and other fraudulent activities,” said Mark …
Monday, December 3, 2012
A minor accident wrecked a utility pole on Old Lincoln Highway.
Utility workers installed a new pole along eastbound Old Lincoln Highway in Falls Township Monday night. The original pole was snapped after a vehicle struck it, Lt. Hank Ward said. No injuries were reported in the accident. Crews from PECO and Verizon were on the scene, just past the municipal complex, at 8 p.m. working to install a new pole. One eastbound lane of the the roadway was closed for a period of the evening as the pole was replaced.
Bristol Borough police also reported several other incidents recently.
Another week, another copper theft from a PECO substation in the Levittown area. Bristol Borough police say they are looking for the culprit who took "several lengths" of copper wire from the substation at the corner of Linden and Mifflin streets. According to police, the theft was discovered recently and will end up costing PECO $6,000. Recently, Bristol Township police conducted a ground search and arrested one man after one incident while Falls officers continue to investigate a theft that caused $50,000 in damage. DUI A 35-year-old Otter Street resident was arrested at Route 13 and Bath Street for DUI. Warrant Arrest Steve Brewington Jr., 26, Race Street, was taken into custody after it was discovered he had an active warrant out for …
Thursday, November 22, 2012
A PECO power station was severely damaged and local police are investigating.
Sometime in the past week, $1000 worth of copper ground wire was taken from a Falls Township PECO station. According to police, someone entered the power station at Penn Avenue and Tyburn Road and cut the copper ground wire. The PECO station is located near the entrance to the old U.S. Steel plant. The copper wiring was worth $1,000, but $50,000 in damaged was caused by the removal of the wiring, police said. Sign up for the Levittown Patch newsletter to get news, blogs and more sent directly to your email every morning. Falls police did not report whether the incident was related to a similar crime last week in Bristol Township. In that incident, two men were spotted trying to steal copper grounding from the PECO facility in the 7100 …
Monday, November 5, 2012
All three of the county's electric suppliers still were working to restore electricity to all customers.
A week after Hurricane Sandy struck, about 14,000 Bucks County electric customers still were without power. As of Monday at 5:20 p.m., 2,228, Met Ed customers in northeast Bucks and 820 PPL customers in northwest Bucks were out of power. In Central and Lower Bucks, about 11,000 PECO customers still were without power as of Monday. In PECO's territory, service for most remaining customers is expected to be restored by midnight Monday. However, the company noted that some "customers in the most damaged and isolated areas may be without electric service until next week." Met Ed made progress in Bucks County in recent days by energizing the Ferndale Substation on Sunday evening and the Ottsville Substation on Monday, according to an update …
Grade the response from PECO in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
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Monday, November 5, 2012
Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people on the East Coast, including here in Bucks County. PECO worked to restore power to their customers in Levittown for a week, and the Monday morning quarterbacking has begun. Tell us what you think of the job the companies have done so far. Vote in the poll and then share your thoughts in the comments.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Utility companies predict that most or all of Bucks County will be restored to power by midnight Sunday.
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Sunday, November 4, 2012
On Saturday, local utility companies restored power to more than 50,000 customers, but they still have more than 40,000 to go. In a press release Saturday night, PECO reported that 30,000 customers remained without power in Bucks County. PPL had 5,621 and Met-Ed stated it had 4,874 customers still in the dark. Are you one of the last 40,000? How have you been coping? In Bucks County, Bristol, Lower Makefield, Upper Makefield, Solebury townships and New Hope were the hardest hit. PECO expects most of the remaining customers to have service restored by Sunday midnight. “I want to thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we continue to focus on safely restoring service across the region,” said Craig Adams, PECO President …
Saturday, November 3, 2012
PECO reports it has restored power to more than 725,000 customers affected by Hurricane Sandy.
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Saturday, November 3, 2012
In the most recent PECO update, from Friday afternoon, PECO reports about 125,000 customers still without power: “This is the worst damage I have ever seen,” said Pat O’Neil, a 25-year PECO veteran supervisor who has been working 16 hour shifts to restore service since the beginning of the storm. “Many of the areas we are working in had significant damage, including multiple downed trees and poles, downed wires, and damaged equipment. In some of these areas, we need to completely rebuild the electric distribution system and supporting infrastructure to restore service to our customers.” PPL reports 10,834 customers without power from Hilltown up through the northwest Bucks County, with about 2,000 customers out in Montgomery County. Met …
Azuzu
3:53 pm on Wednesday, March 27, 2013
They were mesmerized by my awesome flabbiness while sunbathing on my roof. more ›