How we got PEPCO to Improve our Electrical Service

[Anonymous]

My block in Bethesda didn't rise up but 2 years ago we had an extended outage when others didn't, which was typical for our block - we lost power more often and for longer than blocks around us. Pepco did more extensive repairs than usual and since then we have had much better service. We did not lose power this time while the rest of the neighborhood did. I don't know what Pepco did but it definitely wasn't burying lines. So it does seem that there are fixes they can do to improve reliability that fall short of burying lines.

[Anonymous]

isnt it pepco's job to figure all this out?

while i applaud the neighborhood efforts, some people just dont have time to gather and collect all this data.

i would think that if pepco wants everyone to shut up, they put in that leg work, present it to the commnuity and if our elected officials and/or residents put up a stink about the "solutions" than, we have ourselves to blame.

i was fortunate to get my power back but i continue to be mistified on how disorganized pepco operates. whatever the talking point about this storm being different than others is nonsense cause the 2010 one was just as hard.

[Anonymous]

"isnt it pepco's job to figure all this out?"

The thing is, there is less incentive to act unless there is pressure from a regulator or political pressure. I'm surprised Jeff said that the Public Service Commission was helpful, as I've always felt that D.C.'s regulators are exceedingly weak and mostly puppets for the industries they are charged to regulate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"isnt it pepco's job to figure all this out?"

The thing is, there is less incentive to act unless there is pressure from a regulator or political pressure. I'm surprised Jeff said that the Public Service Commission was helpful, as I've always felt that D.C.'s regulators are exceedingly weak and mostly puppets for the industries they are charged to regulate.

im in maryland. we've had hearing upon hearings with pepco. if incentive to have politicians and citizens shut up and call them out every few months for a bitch feast, what is?

now we are holding hearing on these proposed rate increases. pepco has more than enough incentive to study this, put a plan out,and leave it to the hands of residents to accept or decline any proposed changes.

[Anonymous]

We have NOVEC and haven't lost power in the 5 years we lived here. I would find out what NOVEC does differently vs Dominion Power and Pepco. I know it is a non-profit coop and I believe the other two are for-profit and answer to shareholders.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:"isnt it pepco's job to figure all this out?"

The thing is, there is less incentive to act unless there is pressure from a regulator or political pressure. I'm surprised Jeff said that the Public Service Commission was helpful, as I've always felt that D.C.'s regulators are exceedingly weak and mostly puppets for the industries they are charged to regulate.

To be clear, individual staff members were helpful. These were people whose job it is to collect and analyze data. Like a lot of the faceless individuals toiling away in government offices, most people never give them a second thought (other than to call them lazy bureaucrats). But, a lot of them really know their stuff.

[Anonymous]

So it does seem that there are fixes they can do to improve reliability that fall short of burying lines.

This!! But how can we know what they need to do if we never even learn WHY our power went out - was it a tree? a substation? a transformer? We're on day 3 and the fourth time we've decamped to a hotel in the past 4 years. It's cost us thousands of dollars overall and no one has ever offered an explanation for what has gone wrong. We have cooperated 100 percent with the Pepco tree trimming and spent thousands ourselves on tree trimming. (We have no tree damage ourselves, whether we're responsible homeowners or just lucky I can't tell.) But I truly don't know what else to do. I like Jeff's suggestions, but the truth is that we don't have random interruptions on a regular basis so I'm not sure if record keeping is the answer. I do think there should be regulations that require Pepco to disclose the specific cause of each outage (house x is out because of a tree on a power line; house y is out due to a substation explosion; etc) and detail what improvements are needed to avert This recognizes that some acts of God cannot be prevented - if a tree falls because it is struck by lightning it doesn't matter how well it was trimmed - but also would put into place a way to learn from each outage and an action plan to avoid future outages of this scope.

I also think there should be some investigation as to why Pepco has failed a far larger proportion of its customers than the other utilities in this area.

[Anonymous]

i think the tree excuse is rather old.

the only time im reminded that montgomery is the equivalent of redwood forest is after a storm. other than that, the fact that we have a lot of trees is never brought up as an issue, good, bad or indifferent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i think the tree excuse is rather old.

the only time im reminded that montgomery is the equivalent of redwood forest is after a storm. other than that, the fact that we have a lot of trees is never brought up as an issue, good, bad or indifferent

Yes, and a year or two ago it was confirmed via a formal study that our tree cover is no more significant than tree covers in various other cities. Cities which do not have these frequent, long-lasting outages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You may not have paid upfront, but ultimately customers end up footing the bill.

I'm not sure I understand the point of your statement. Of course it cost money, nothing is free. Are you complaining as you think you had to foot the bill for the improvements in Jeff's neighborhood?

We should all be thankful to PEPCO for making sure Jeff's neighborhood does not lose power. Bad enough being without lights or air conditioning -- if I had to be without DCUM too I don't know what I would do.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how Pepco executives get away with not having a disaster plan and leaving the power out for over a week. Dominion is doing a much better job of getting people back on line. Here's an article which sheds some light on how Pepco rolls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pepco-ceo-got-fat-raise-just-before-big-fine/2012/01/04/gIQAtupLbP_story.html

[Anonymous]

Mutiny or strike on the next bill? Jk. But they would be in a world of hurt if most customers resorted to self-help by not paying.

[Anonymous]

Or just pay in pennies. Hundreds of thousands of pennies would not be fun for PEPCO.