Pepco, the electricity supplier for almost 800,000 customers in Maryland and the District, would not be opposed to reliability standard laws that could fine them for poor service, an official said Tuesday.
“They have to be fair, they have to be reasonable,” said Thomas Graham, president of the Pepco region during a meeting with the Prince George’s County Council, though admitted the company would “certainly” not like to see fines.
Pepco has been under heavy criticism from officials and customers frustrated at prolonged power outages. Two weeks ago, a thundersnow storm knocked out power for 180,000 Pepco customers.
Since the, local, state and federal officials have suggested putting in place “enhanced reliability standards” that would allow the government to fine utilities. On Monday, U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., requested that a Senate committee hold hearings on whether the federal government should require federal standards.
Pepco officials have been making the rounds with area officials to defend their service of the last storm, having met with the Montgomery County Council on Monday. Graham on Tuesday admitted that Pepco is “not meeting” customer expectations “right now.”
But he also defended charges that the company didn’t move to mobilize outside crews to help with the storm fast enough, providing the council with a timeline that says officials had requested the day before Wednesday’s storm.
“We recognize that our reputation is tarnished at this moment,” Graham said. “We’ve been a partner in this county for over 100 years. We want to do a good job, we are going to do a better.”
During the questioning, Councilman Obie Patterson said, “I believe one of my colleagues earlier made reference to you as taking the heat for last two or three days as to speak. Let me just say the citizens of my district would have loved to have some heat.”
