The staff of Maryland’s utility regulator recommends fining Pepco if the electric company does not significantly improve its reliability.
In a brief filed Wednesday, the Public Service Commission’s staff counsel said Pepco’s performance has been “poor when compared with all utilities” as a result of neglecting a “well-designed” system.
The primary cause of Pepco’s reliability issues is vegetation management, according to the brief, followed by Pepco’s failure to upgrade its technology, perform system maintenance and conduct regular inspections that are required by state law. As a result, Maryland customers have experienced “potentially preventable outages” and expressed “a groundswell of anger,” the brief said.
“Pepco needs to ensure its policies and practices change, as soon as possible, and concentrate on both immediate and long-term remedial measures,” the PSC staff counsel said. Failure to improve would prompt the commission to issue a fine of an undetermined amount.
The state’s probe of the electric company’s performance was prompted by customers’ ire over prolonged outages after storms in 2010 and 2011.
Meanwhile, Pepco’s brief filed in the case says the storms damaged technology and led to outages.
The PSC acknowledged that Pepco is trying to improve its “subpar” performance, the agency also noted that the company’s latest improvements haven’t been sufficiently tested by a major storm, so it is impossible to know how successful the updates have been.
To ensure that Pepco continues to improve its service, the company “should be required to file detailed quarterly reports” to the PSC and “present a detailed service reliability enhancement plan to the commission semiannually,” the agency wrote.
Residents’ outrage with Pepco, which has about 784,000 customers in Maryland and the District, led the company to be named the “most hated company” in America recently. Its reliability has been at the bottom quarter of U.S. electric companies for the last five years.
“Pepco is improving the reliability of its service to our customers through its Reliability Enhancement Plan and Emergency Response Improvement Project,” Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson said. He declined to answer additional questions because the company is still evaluating the PSC brief.
PSC spokeswoman Regina Davis said the regulator does not comment on ongoing cases.
