Dive Summary:

• Hurricane Sandy provided a test for many utilities to see what benefits smart grid technology could provide during extreme weather events, and smart meters played a key role around Washington, D.C., and Maryland, according to Pepco.
• Pepco's two-way meters automatically send “no power” reports to an outage management system, hurdling language barriers and other problems associated with phone reporting, as well as allowing Pepco to monitor power restoration and better manage its crews.
• The company projected that 95% of its affected customers had their power restored by the next morning after outages occurred this week.

From the article:

"... But automation can speed up restoration. In the case of Pepco, its meters automatically send a “no power” report to its outage management system, which is quicker than having a person call in and overcomes any possible language barriers. Checking restored service from central officers via meters also saves time and personnel.

The utility, which has about 425,000 activated smart meters, had more 100,00 people suffer from power outages and 40,000 at its worst. ..."