The Maryland Public Service Commission listens to testimony about Pepco's reliability at a public hearing in Rockville on August 30.
The meeting began with dozens of elected leaders who testified on behalf of the residents they represent, including U.S. Congressman Chris Van Hollen, State Delegate Kumar Barve and Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett.
Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz said he was concerned about communication problems with Pepco after the July 25 storm and said he wanted to know why some city neighborhoods lose power more frequently than others.
“Lest there be any confusion, the lack of responsibility from Pepco extends far beyond the response to recent storms,” Katz said.
Katz noted he was “pleased that our Quince Orchard community is identified in Pepco’s recently unveiled reliability plan as one of the communities whose substations will undergo substation hardening.”
Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz testifies in front of the PSC.
City Council member Ryan Spiegel also testified at the hearing and noted “some of our leaders have likened the county’s electric system to that of a third world country.” Spiegel said the repeated power problems send “a very bad message to the rest of the country and to potential investors in our state.”
“I urge the Commission to think boldly, to do more than just fiddle around the edges of this problem, and to keep in mind the hundreds of thousands of rate-paying, and tax- paying, individuals and businesses who have been repeatedly victimized by the staggering shortcomings of Pepco’s system,” Spiegel said.
Montgomery County’s Legislative Information Officer Neil Greenberger said more than 350 people attended the meeting which stretched over six hours. He said the last speaker did not finish until after midnight. Greenberger said the entire meeting will soon be available on the county’s website for viewing and it will be rebroadcast on County Cable Montgomery.
After being inundated by complaints from Pepco customers, many of whom were left without power for days following summer storms, the PSC launched a formal investigation into Pepco’s reliability at an August 17 hearing in Baltimore.
Since that meeting, the PSC has ordered Pepco to produce a list of documents and it has scheduled an October 12 status conference.
PEPCO should be required to provide an itemized annual analysis for the past 20 years illustrating what percentage of their Total O&M expenses were devoted to tree trimming and substation maintenance. [I am willing to bet that there has been a substantial decline in the relative amount spent in these areas in order to flow more profit to the shareholders.]
Additionally, PEPCO should be require to provide evidence to document their claims that private homeowners have prevented access to trim trees, what percent of their lines are located on private property, and document what legal steps they have taken to enforce their right-of-way requirements to gain access to trim trees for each case in which access was denied.
Negative consequences of the erratically supplied voltages on our electrically dependent equipment (air conditioning, Tv, computers, etc.) cannot, and must not, be overlooked. This does not include the wasted cost of labor due to outages. Damage caused by any outage should require appropriate compensation to those suffering from the damage. Total costs for deficiency corrections should not be passed on to the consumers.
Management responsible for appropriate equipment’ modernization and maintenance, but did not adequately fulfill duties should contribute to the process of “making whole” the affected consumers. Appropriate incentives can work wonders. If adequate evaluation of constructive procedures are verifiably visualized, the suggested managerial “contributions” could be suspended.