Friday, July 20, 2012
State regulators to vote today on proposed Pepco rate increase.
This is the second of two articles based on comments made by Gov. Martin O’Malley this week about Pepco, the state Public Service Commission and the future of Maryland’s power grid. Click here to read the first article. Gov. Martin O’Malley laid out the challenge for Maryland’s Public Service Commission this week, calling on regulators to work to strengthen the state’s power grid as utilities rethink their service model. Speaking at a stop in Rockville, O’Malley (D) called 1999 legislation that deregulated the state’s utilities “a mistake,” saying it led to a reduction of preventive maintenance by Pepco that went unaddressed until the PSC intervened in 2010. Now, the PSC, which regulates state utilities, must address “how to adjust for…
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Public Service Commission plans hearings on Pepco's response to the June 29 storm.
This is the first of two articles based on comments by Gov. Martin O’Malley this week about Pepco, the Maryland Public Service Commission and the future of Maryland’s power grid. Stronger storms than the region has seen in decades mean Maryland needs a stronger electrical grid—and that means the state’s Public Service Commission has work to do after it holds hearings next month, Gov. Martin O’Malley said during a stop this week in Rockville. “I think there’s pretty broad consensus that the grid that we currently have is not as strong as it needs to be to weather the far more violent and frequent weather events that a warm atmosphere is going to be bringing for the foreseeable future,” O’Malley (D) said. Pepco executives and state officials…
Pepco says there have been fewer outages and shorter recovery times.
The lack of reliable electric power has become the No.1 quality-of-life issue in the county and the June 29 storm and resulting outages are proof that Pepco hasn’t been doing its job, according to Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) in a Montgomery County Council debriefing on Pepco’s response to the storm. But the utility is making strides with fewer outages and shorter recovery times since 2010, said Pepco Region President Thomas Graham. Pepco has been implementing a five-year reliability plan, which includes managing trees near wires, upgrading feeders and burying some power lines. The June 29 storm was unpredicted and no utility company with overhead wires could have recovered quickly, Graham said. There were…
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
The county councilman has launched a petition urging the governor to replace members of the Maryland Public Service Commission.
County Councilman Hans Riemer (D-At large) of Silver Spring is calling on Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) to replace members of the Maryland Public Service Commission, the state regulatory body that oversees Pepco and Baltimore Gas and Electric. Riemer has launched a petition at a MoveOn.org-sponsored website, The Gazette reports. The petition comes in the wake of mounting frustration with Pepco after the June 29 derecho storm, which left widespread power outages and tens of thousands of people in the heat and dark for days. Nearly 2,400 have signed on to the petition since it launched Friday at noon, Riemer said Monday night, speaking at a meeting of the Western Montgomery County Citizens Advisory Board. By Tuesday morning, nearly 2,700…
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Pepco and BGE will reportedly be able to charge a fee for losses suffered when power was out to hundreds of thousands after the June 29 storm.
Pepco and BGE are allowed to recoup some of the money lost after the severe storm June 29 by charging a fee to be paid by customers who were without power, 9 News Now reported. "It's the law," Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey told 9 News Now. "It's called bill stabilization." "The storm adjustment kicks in automatically," Maryland Public Service Commission spokeswoman Regina Davis told 9 News Now. "The BSA (Bill Stabilization Adjustment) is calculated and applied by the companies, but checked by PSC staff and we make the utilities correct it if they get it wrong." The storm adjustment only covers the first 24 hours after the initial power outage, however—not the entire outage. According to Pepco's website, "The BSA is a monthly adjustment that…
In a letter to the utilities' regulatory agency, leaders of seven jurisdictions outline changes they said need to be made in light of the power failures during the derecho storm.
Less than two weeks after a massive storm disabled power to more than three quarters of a million Maryland residents, elected leaders wrote in a letter to a state regulatory agency that utility companies need to improve their performance and disclose critical outage information when government agencies request it. In the letter to the Public Service Commission, officials urged the regulatory agency to consider changes to the way utilities operate, including burying some power lines underground, mandatory staffing levels and improved disclosure of outage information to local municipal officials. The letter was signed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-…
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Click on the county's interactive map to find out when storm debris collection will occur in your neighborhood.
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Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Starting Wednesday, you can track Montgomery County storm debris collection crews as they make their way down county-maintained roads. Want to know when they may pick up the tree limbs and other storm debris on your street? Using the county's online snow map at http://www5.montgomerycountymd.gov/snowmap, enter your address and you'll see the pulsating icon in relation to where the crews are located. The county Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is providing the special storm tree debris collections -- on county-maintained roads only -- throughout the county starting July 11. Crews will follow the county's 217 snow plow routes to pick up tree debris located within the county right-of-way. The tree debris pickup is a special one-time …
Monday, July 9, 2012
Montgomery County Council president is harshly critical of Pepco response to June 29 storm. What do you think of his comments?
After almost 10 days of power outages amid a crippling heatwave, Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner says he’s fed up. In a statement released Monday, Berliner lambasted Pepco for its response to the June 29 derecho storm that left as many as 443,000 area residents without power, some up to a week or more. “Our residents have had enough,” Berliner said in a written statement following a press conference. “While this was a big storm and outages are to be expected, Pepco’s performance – on every level – was unacceptable. The length of the outages. The appalling communications. The computer glitches and data discrepancies. The list can go on and on.” Berliner’s suggestions to improve Montgomery County’s power source include: “…
Friday, July 6, 2012
YouTube video song goes viral as musicians play in the dark.
A group of local musicians has gone “unplugged”—not by choice. Now the group's YouTube video song railing against Pepco, the major electricity utility in the Washington, DC, region, is going viral. The song has many obscene lyrics and a name that is unprintable here. (Think the Cee Lo Green hit that was edited for radio as “Forget You.”) The more printable lyrics include the chorus: “What the hell, you guys?/Stop telling us these lies/All we want at this point/ is air conditioning in our lives.” The less printable lines are a mix of angst, anguish and sing-song profanity that—after nearly a week without power for some in the region—likely strike a chord with the “powerless” in and around DC and Maryland. (Not to be upstaged by Pepco, BGE …
Some residents still left in the dark and heat nearly a week after Friday's damaging derecho storm.
Ronald Joyer
12:35 pm on Sunday, July 22, 2012
I do not know what people were expecting from O'Malley??? He has done the same on most other issues, that is, stick it to us. Promised us, no property tax increase, he did not increase them. He increased the rate, at which we can be charged for property tax. Gas tax, auto registration fee, emission test, etc. all increased. Let's not get started on the give aways to companies, while we foot the … more ›