Pepco reduces rates for Md., D.C. customers

Pepco customers will see their electricity bills drop about 15 percent in Maryland and 10 percent in D.C. starting June 1. The power company said Tuesday that the average residential customer in Maryland will save about $22 a month under the new rates. The average D.C. resident will see bills fall by about $10 a month.

“It’s just the case that the energy costs have gone down,” Pepco spokesman Andre Francis said. “That’s why we’re able to pass on that decrease to our customers.”

Pepco does not generate its own electricity, but rather purchases it from wholesale suppliers. The Maryland Public Service Commission approved the new supply rates last week, Francis said.

Smaller bills
The average monthly bill for a Pepco residential customer:
Now Starting June 1 Savings
Maryland $150.69 $128.65 $22
District $97.66 $87.72 $10
Source: Pepco

Pepco has about 778,000 customers in D.C. and Maryland.

Supply rates represent about 71 percent of the money customers pay every month, he said. The rest charged to customers is mostly for distribution.

The D.C. Public Service Commission authorized the reduction in the supply rates in March, Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey said.

In 2010, Pepco customers in D.C. saw a 1.2 percent reduction in their bills because supply costs went down. Maryland residents saw a 2.2 percent drop.

Pepco has been a major source of frustration for its customers recently. Residents have gone days at a time without power following snowstorms and thunderstorms large and small.

In Montgomery County –where frustrations have run especially high — a 192-page report commissioned by County Executive Ike Leggett pointed out that Pepco has continued to earn profits despite widespread complaints about the company’s service.

Unlike “more traditional companies whose revenues and profits have a direct connection to the quality of the services or products they sell to their customers,” the report said, “this is not the case” with Pepco.

The Maryland General Assembly recently passed legislation that would require utility companies such as Pepco to improve reliability or face fines.

Montgomery County Councilman Roger Berliner, who has frequently spoken out against Pepco’s performance, warned that the rate reduction shouldn’t be viewed as the company’s response to critics, but is rather just a reflection of the energy markets, with the price of natural gas dropping.

“They’ve never made any money since they started buying power on the cost of power,” Berliner said, “so it doesn’t affect their profits one iota.”

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