Northwood News ♦ October 2010

NFCCA Provides Testimony on Pepco Reliability

By Laura Hussey

Pepco’s performance following several severe weather events this year left many of the utility’s customers demanding accountability. Outrage over inability to reach Pepco’s call center to report an outage and inconsistent information from the utility about restoration times was compounded by extreme heat after a late July thunderstorm came and went in about 15 minutes, leaving 200,000 Montgomery County residents in the dark, some (including some NFCCA residents) for several days. High winds from the freakishly severe storm caused extensive damage to trees, blocking roads and downing power lines.

This downed tree spanned the width of Dennis Avenue and lay untouched for days. (See additional photos in this issue.)

After Pepco customers demanded that state and local officials hold Pepco accountable for improving reliability, Governor O’Malley asked the Maryland Public Service Commission, which regulates Pepco and other utilities in the state, to investigate. At an initial hearing in August, Public Service Commissioners heard testimony from Pepco officials, who admitted that the utility’s reliability is among the worst in the nation. Two additional hearings — one in Montgomery County and one in Prince George’s County — gave residents and local officials an opportunity to testify.

Falling tree limbs pulled down power lines, ripping the facia board right off the front of Bob Loube’s house on Cavalier Drive. No warning tape was placed at the scene for days; repairs took almost three days.

The 30 August MoCo hearing kicked off with two hours of testimony from elected officials, followed by testimony by local residents. NFCCA resident Bob Loube, a consultant with almost 25 years experience in utility regulation, gave excellent testimony on behalf of the association and submitted substantive written testimony for the record. In the testimony, Bob recommended that:

Pepco’s rates be structured to provide the utility with a higher return for providing higher reliability, while penalizing the utility for providing average or poor reliability.
Pepco be prohibited from paying a dividend to its parent company until reliability is improved.
Pepco be required to implement infrastructure improvements that have measurably improved reliability for a utility in New Jersey that has a similar age system and operates its system in similar conditions to those found in Montgomery County.

The complete testimony was sent by Carole Barth to the NFCCA listserv (learn how to subscribe here). ■