The District’s consumer-advocate agency is seeking to dismiss a request for a rate increase by the area’s largest power provider. In a new filing with the D.C. Public Service Commission, the Office of the People’s Counsel is attempting to block Pepco from raising rates once again.
“The time has come for the Commission to hold Pepco accountable for its poor quality distribution service to District of Columbia customers,” the agency said in the official filing. “Few things touch the daily lives of 21st Century consumers more than persistent, prolonged, and often unexplained electrical service outages.”
Pepco has requested to increase its rates in the District by about 5.3 percent, a move that would bring in an additional $42.1 million a year for the utility. Such a change would increase the average customer’s bill by about $5 per month, according to a staff lawyer at the PSC.
Pepco officials say the steeper rates are needed to fund the infrastructure capable of meeting increasingly stringent regulations.
Yet-to-be-enacted rules require Pepco to reduce the frequency of outages by 9 percent and the length of outages by 3.4 percent every year beginning in 2013.
“We look forward to all parties — including our customers — discussing the rate-increase request and expressing their views,” said Pepco spokesman Clay Anderson. “We believe the Public Service Commission will render a verdict that is equitable.”
Pepco estimates the new rates would take effect in April if approved.
However, consumer advocates counter that Pepco hardly has the track record to request additional money from financially strapped homeowners.
“The District’s ratepayers should not be required to reward a company that has provided service so subpar that in terms of service quality the company ranks in the lowest quartile when compared to its peers,” said the counsel.
Previous rate increases in D.C. garnered Pepco an additional $28 million in 2008 and $19.8 million in 2010.
As Pepco once again seeks a rate increase, its public approval is arguably at an all-time low.
Pepco Holdings was labeled the “most hated” company in America, according to a recent survey by Business Insider. The publication found that the company was ranked last among the 25 largest investor-owned utilities nationwide.
