Why can't Maryland get rid of Pepco?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not a PEPCO fan either. But the other power companies really aren't even better -- BGE, Delvarva all still have power outages too.

Ugh, BGE customer here going on day 6 with no power

[Anonymous]

Did Pepco build the infrastucture? If so, I don't think you can just "remove" them. THey would have to be paid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure they are not the best, but isn't this more the fault of mother nature than the power company? it does take a certain number of days to repair hundreds of down lines and damaged transformers, right?

No, Pepco has a responsibility to upgrade its equipment to use modern cables and components that are more resistant to weather related problems. Pepco also has a responsibility to trim trees so that there are fewer outages when storms do hit. A number of households and neighborhoods lose power even though their upstream lines are fine because Pepco has old equipment that trips with downstream breaks. A few years ago, Pepco took a lot of heat for constant outages and they reluctantly went out to trim trees. The storms the following year were the same but fewer outages. However, Pepco has not been back since to proactively trim trees, most has grown back and guess what the areas that could have been trimmed knocked down wires.

The storm didn't just target areas served by Pepco yet Pepco areas have many, many more outages. This is a result of Pepco's poor service. Pepco response is also very delayed, poorly organized and done to spend the least amount of money to resolve the outages. I'm sure that our outage will end up in their databanks as being much shorter than reality. Pepco has a habit of cleaning an outage when power is still out. Residents need to realize when they do this and call back to report an outage. Pepco gets to record that they were only out for a shorter period of time. If residents do not call back in to report it is still out, Pepco takes credit for restoring their power earlier even though they did not.

not sure if its fair to compare Virginia to Maryland. Virginia has more newer developments with underground lines. the older neighborhoods in Virginia were hit pretty hard too.

Then let's compare adjacent Maryland regions.
PEPCO has approximately 778,000 customers. At the peak of the outages, about 443,000 customers were without power. Now, 5 days and 15 hours after the storm, there are still 85,000 customers without power.

BGE is the largest utility in Maryland and has over 1.2 million customers. At the peak of the outages, approximately 708,000 customers were without power. Today, there are just under 47,000 customers still without power.

So, In the same amount of time, BGE has restored power to just over 93% of their customers, while PEPCO has restored power to just over 80% of their customers.

Why is is so much harder for PEPCO to service their area? There just isn't a good reason why PEPCO's numbers, turn-around and customer service are amongst the absolute worst in the nation. And to add onto that that the shareholders are making money and the executives are getting large raises and bonuses while the customers are getting second-rate service is inexcusible.

I am so glad that I live in the area serviced by BGE.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a PEPCO fan either. But the other power companies really aren't even better -- BGE, Delvarva all still have power outages too.

The problem is that nationwide Pepco has far less reliable service than the power companies who have similar issues with trees and above ground lines. Pepco also almost always has more people out than the other providers. While there may be Dominion or BGE customers without power there are far less of them than Pepco customers. Pepco customers are ask used to multi, multi outages as it happens all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'm sure they are not the best, but isn't this more the fault of mother nature than the power company? it does take a certain number of days to repair hundreds of down lines and damaged transformers, right?

No, Pepco has a responsibility to upgrade its equipment to use modern cables and components that are more resistant to weather related problems. Pepco also has a responsibility to trim trees so that there are fewer outages when storms do hit. A number of households and neighborhoods lose power even though their upstream lines are fine because Pepco has old equipment that trips with downstream breaks. A few years ago, Pepco took a lot of heat for constant outages and they reluctantly went out to trim trees. The storms the following year were the same but fewer outages. However, Pepco has not been back since to proactively trim trees, most has grown back and guess what the areas that could have been trimmed knocked down wires.

The storm didn't just target areas served by Pepco yet Pepco areas have many, many more outages. This is a result of Pepco's poor service. Pepco response is also very delayed, poorly organized and done to spend the least amount of money to resolve the outages. I'm sure that our outage will end up in their databanks as being much shorter than reality. Pepco has a habit of cleaning an outage when power is still out. Residents need to realize when they do this and call back to report an outage. Pepco gets to record that they were only out for a shorter period of time. If residents do not call back in to report it is still out, Pepco takes credit for restoring their power earlier even though they did not.

not sure if its fair to compare Virginia to Maryland. Virginia has more newer developments with underground lines. the older neighborhoods in Virginia were hit pretty hard too.

Then let's compare adjacent Maryland regions.
PEPCO has approximately 778,000 customers. At the peak of the outages, about 443,000 customers were without power. Now, 5 days and 15 hours after the storm, there are still 85,000 customers without power.

BGE is the largest utility in Maryland and has over 1.2 million customers. At the peak of the outages, approximately 708,000 customers were without power. Today, there are just under 47,000 customers still without power.

So, In the same amount of time, BGE has restored power to just over 93% of their customers, while PEPCO has restored power to just over 80% of their customers.

Why is is so much harder for PEPCO to service their area? There just isn't a good reason why PEPCO's numbers, turn-around and customer service are amongst the absolute worst in the nation. And to add onto that that the shareholders are making money and the executives are getting large raises and bonuses while the customers are getting second-rate service is inexcusible.

I am so glad that I live in the area serviced by BGE.

Your numbers seem off. According to Washington Post, there are about 24K people total without power in the metro area. Most of them are in Montgomery County. We are considering buying a house there. Any idea why restoration takes so long in MoCo?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/local/power-outage-status/2012/

[Anonymous]

at least baghdad's power companies gives you generators

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I just do not understand why the state of MD can not shut them down and give the business to a different company.

Because PEPCO owns the distribution lines. The government can't seize them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many utilities are for profit companies with a heavy layer of regulation. That's how to avoid monopolistic behavior when the product is a public good, while still retaining a modicum of competition. Do I think PEPCO is doing a good job? No. Do I think a new set of regulators/bureaucracy would do a better job? Maybe for 2-3 years max, but call me cynical. Will grousing on DCUM help? Heck no.

13:01, Comparing DC to Baghdad is beneath you, you know that's not true.

You know what, I have family in a 3rd world country, and this doesn't happen to them. Really. They saw this story on BBC and emailed me to make comments. We live in MoCo and they know our history of several multiple day power outages over the past few years and find it a bit crazy that this can happen 'in America'.

Yeah, but what percentage of the population in your country have electric day to day. If 30 percent of the population have everyday electric, but 70 percent is without running water and/or electric, BFD that the very few who are powered never lose the electric.

[Anonymous]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/omalley-and-the-outages-why-cant-liberals-make-the-trains-run-on-time/259314/


Sorry I did not post correctly. Here is some food for thought about why PEPCO has issues. Some of it can be laid right at the feet of our wonderful governor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Write to the Public Service Commission, your Council members, Ike, O'Malley, and your State Senators and Delegates.

OP, I believe, noted that PEPCO makes large political contributions to local and national politicians. Complain, but it won't do you much good.

Now, those of us who alive in VA, where we aren't as "educated, affluent, and well informed" as the titular gods of DV. and MOCO, our power was back in less than 48 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/omalley-and-the-outages-why-cant-liberals-make-the-trains-run-on-time/259314/


Sorry I did not post correctly. Here is some food for thought about why PEPCO has issues. Some of it can be laid right at the feet of our wonderful governor.

Interesting. The article describes a private sector, for-profit monopoly that does all the things you expect from monopolies in terms of what are known as "excess profits" for the CEO, bad service (because no competition) and the rest.

This is apparently a case of TOO LITTLE government regulation, from either O'Malley (although the article doesn't spell out what exactly, if any, powers he has here) or the regulatory authority, the Maryland Public Service Commission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Write to the Public Service Commission, your Council members, Ike, O'Malley, and your State Senators and Delegates.

OP, I believe, noted that PEPCO makes large political contributions to local and national politicians. Complain, but it won't do you much good.

Now, those of us who alive in VA, where we aren't as "educated, affluent, and well informed" as the titular gods of DV. and MOCO, our power was back in less than 48 hours.

Uh, maybe your power in VA was back on in less than 48 hours. But Dominion only hit its 95% on the 4th.

You may not be a titular god, but maybe you could open up a newspaper occasionally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Write to the Public Service Commission, your Council members, Ike, O'Malley, and your State Senators and Delegates.

OP, I believe, noted that PEPCO makes large political contributions to local and national politicians. Complain, but it won't do you much good.

Now, those of us who alive in VA, where we aren't as "educated, affluent, and well informed" as the titular gods of DV. and MOCO, our power was back in less than 48 hours.

I live in Arlington and just got power back yesterday morning. 48 hours? Not even close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Your numbers seem off. According to Washington Post, there are about 24K people total without power in the metro area. Most of them are in Montgomery County. We are considering buying a house there. Any idea why restoration takes so long in MoCo?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/local/power-outage-status/2012/

PP here. I went to bge.com and pepco.com to get my numbers for the number of outages. I only used WaPo for the total number of customers served by each company (that's where Google sent me). Just going back, I see now that the 85000 number was posted yesterday morning for the numbers from end of day on Tuesday (7/3). Today's update from PEPCO (which was posted after I made the previous post) says 15,444 customers or about 4% left powerless. So, they've made significant headway in the last 48 hours.

And the restoration in MoCo takes so long because PEPCO does not spend enough money on maintaining and updating the infrastructure. As has been pointed out above, PEPCO does not spend nearly enough money on tree trimming in areas with excessive tree cover that is near power lines. If the trees were cut back further from the power lines, when they fell, they would be less likely to knock out power lines. PEPCO has resisted putting power lines underground. PEPCO has very old equipment and spends less money per customer on repairing and replacing aging equipment relative to the other power companies, so they end up with more equipment failures. And on and on. PEPCO needs to spend more money on the aging infrastructure, but is so tied to making a profit, giving raises and bonuses to executives and making dividends to the shareholders that they will skimp money on the infrastructure. Their only answer to loud cries for infrastructure maintenance and upgrades is to pass on the full cost to the customers rather than subsidizing the cost out of profits and bonuses. If this were a government agency, it would be one of the more corrupt agencies out there.

[Anonymous]

So what's the answer? Going nuclear?