When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the public utility company that provides electric power to the Washington D.C. area went to work ensuring more than 894,000 customers were able to meet late fees and disconnections, and reconnecting others who had lost service. “We knew the pandemic created many challenges for our customers — financial hardship,” said the external affairs lead. “Customer Care representatives will work with residential and limited-utility assistance programs that can support deferred payment and entry into alternate payment arrangements and flexible solutions.” Since then, the agreement has been extended several times.

“We did it because it was the right thing to do,” said Miguel Ortega, Vice President of Projects and Contracts at Pepco Holdings, the parent company of Pepco. “In addition to providing food for their families, residents were most worried about losing power in their homes. We knew how important it is for our customers to keep their electric and water service intact — more than ever they were home.”

Like many other “essential” services, Pepco has had to rethink how it operates, particularly with its outwardly customer-facing roles. But the company has pushed to be a strong partner in the community it serves. “We haven’t stopped working and we haven’t missed a beat,” Ortega tells LATINO Magazine. “We just doing things differently. One crew member drives separately to a location whenever possible, and they are required to wear a mask. Before when we might have a crew working on things in parallel at a worksite, now we do one thing first, and then the other in some workplaces. We have our computers on one and in clean network shared drive for compiling the building, for the times when we have portable wash stations that weren’t there before. Each crew member holds on a regular basis without meeting face to face! And this goes for Pepco engineers too — we’ve done quite a pretty good job of minimizing the risk of contracting the virus while continuing to serve.”

Ortega first joined Pepco Holdings in 2016 after several leadership posts at ConEdison in Illinois. Both companies are part of the Exelon family, with more than three decades of experience. “Ortega is one of the highest-ranking Latinos in the public utility industry. His department manages more than \$700M combined in projects in the mid-Atlantic energy grid. “This is where infrastructure investment has become more important than ever,” he says.

A first-generation Mexican-American born and raised in the Chicago area, Ortega is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology, with a degree in Electrical Engineering.