#MoCo Online: What To Do About Pepco

Last year's derecho storm was the latest to highlight issues with Pepco reliability and communication.

Last week, Montgomery County Councilman Roger Berliner proposed a "Utility 2.0" plan to improve electricity service.

Patch users had something to say about Pepco getting a rate increase to pay for reliability improvements:

Michael Smith said: "Why should Pepco increase it's rates AT ALL to pay for infrastructure? Each year they make over $100 MILLION dollars in pure profit and invest ZERO of it into the community."

Arlene K. Polangin said: "Pepco needs to improve service BEFORE it gets a rate increase. Why should customers pay for poor service with a higher bill? The DERECHO = 6 days NO electricity and every little outage = no power in the last couple of years. This is OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!"

In the District of Columbia, a city task force last week endorsed a $1 billion plan to bury some of DC's power lines.

Pepco customers sounded off on Twitter:

DC resident @paul_kiernan summed up the proposal's content: "Pepco, DC reach deal to finance cost of burying 60 power lines. (Finally.) No plan to bury lines in MD/VA due to high cost/low density."

@MollyBrauer, of DC, tweeted a cost-saving idea: "Pepco plans to spend $1 billion to study the Derecho, and charge customers for it?!! Trim trees by power lines. Just saved you $1billion!"