Pepco is demanding that D.C.’s utility consumer advocate put up or shut up about claims that large numbers of the power provider’s meters are faulty and might have been responsible for skyrocketing winter electricity bills.

Allegations of busted equipment are “grossly inaccurate and misleading to Pepco customers,” Deborah Royster, Pepco’s deputy general counsel, wrote Wednesday to D.C. People’s Counsel Elizabeth Noel, who represents residential utility customers before the Public Service Commission.