Dear UMBC Community,

We are delighted to share with you the news that Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) has completed installation of a new electrical feeder to our campus. This third feeder comes from a different substation than the campus's other feeders, providing much-needed redundancy for our power supply, greatly improving reliability and reducing the likelihood of campus power outages. 

This milestone concludes a years-long effort to improve the reliability of our electrical system. Going back at least to 2019, the university has engaged BGE leadership in this effort, as our community endured numerous power outages and waited for relief. Each power outage we experienced disrupted research, teaching, administrative work, and student life. Earlier this year, after more outages to our campus, we met with BGE leadership again. We appreciated their prompt response--which included a meeting on campus for numerous members of their team to hear from our community about the negative impacts of the outages--as well as BGE's continued work to address short-term fixes while advancing steadily on this long-term upgrade. 

While it is impossible to prevent every outage, this system redundancy will go a long way toward improving reliability. Over the past year, UMBC has also made numerous improvements to our campus utility infrastructure, enhancing the system's overall resiliency. We commend BGE and our own Facilities Management team for their collaborative efforts to complete this project and to have done so with minimal disruption and a month ahead of schedule. Well done! 

Sincerely,