Monday, August 6, 2012
What was your Pepco experience after the June 29 derecho? The Maryland Public Service Commission wants to know.
The Maryland Public Service Commission wants to hear people’s experiences dealing with Pepco after thousands were left powerless for more than a week in the wake of the violent June 29 storm. A public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Council Office Building in Rockville, the first of eight hearings the PSC has planned statewide in order to assess the response of power companies following the derecho. At its peak, the storm caused power loss to more than 483,639 Pepco customers, Patch has reported. The utility company took nearly 10 days to fully restore power to all its customers, sparking public criticism from government leaders and lawmakers throughout the DC-metro region. “We need to hear from the customers, from the rate …
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Damages in Montgomery were severe enough to mean local governments, and some non-profits, can qualify for federal assistance.
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Thursday, August 2, 2012
President Obama Thursday declared a major disaster exists in six jurisdictions in Maryland, including Montgomery County, for the June 29 "derecho" that wreaked havoc, including knocking out power to hundreds of thousands in a major heat wave. The declaration means federal aid is available for state and local recovery efforts due to the storms, winds and aftermath from June 29-July 8. The funding is available to state and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations for emergency work and the repair or replacement of damaged facilities in the counties of Calvert, Charles, Kent, Montgomery, and St. Mary’s and the City of Baltimore, according to a White House statement. Federal money could reimburse up to 75 …
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Pepco's recently released report on outages following last month's storm is mainly in defense of the company's response.
Pepco has released a report largely defending its response to outages caused by last month’s derecho. According to the report, at its peak, the storm caused power loss to over 483,639 Pepco customers, including 252,018 in Montgomery County and 158,210 in Prince George’s. One week later, the report shows 4,411 Montgomery County Pepco customers were still without power, as were 424 Prince George’s customers. It took Pepco nearly 10 days to fully restore power to all its customers. That occurred at 4:30 a.m. on July 8, according to the report. Read the full report PDF on the right. In the self-assessment, Pepco defends its response, writing that forecasts did not predict that the storm would hit the area hard, but “when the Derecho …
Pepco's recently released report on outages following last month's storm is mainly in defense of the company's response.
Pepco released a report largely defending its response to outages caused by last month’s derecho. According to the report, at its peak, the storm caused power loss to more than 483,639 Pepco customers, including 252,018 in Montgomery County and 158,210 in Prince George’s. One week later, 4,411 Montgomery County Pepco customers were still without power, as were 424 Prince George’s customers, according to the report. It took Pepco nearly 10 days to restore power to all of its customers. That occurred at 4:30 a.m. on July 8, according to the report. Read the full report PDF on the right. In the self-assessment, Pepco defended its response, writing that forecasts did not predict that the storm would hit the area hard, but “when the Derecho …
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Free admission this evening on a game nearly a month in the making.
The Bethesda Big Train, Bethesda’s summer collegiate baseball team, is offering free admission tonight on a game that’s nearly a month in the making. Tuesday’s game against the Baltimore Red Birds was originally set for Saturday, June 30th – the day after the violent storm that left widespread damage and tens of thousands of people without power. The storm damaged Shirley Povich field, toppling a portion of the outfield fence, knocking over a mounted speaker used for the team’s sound system and downing trees on the field, according to general manager Adam Dantus. The storm began just after the team had wrapped up a game Friday night and also toppled trees into spectators’ cars in the parking lot, Dantus said. “We had just finished the game…
The Montgomery County Police Department worked more than 2,000 overtime hours after the June 29 storm and overtime costs for the county are over $100,000, The Gazette reported.
Though officials say they’re still totaling Montgomery County’s storm costs, the Gazette reported that overtime costs alone for the county police department have exceeded $100,000. Spokesperson Angela Cruz told the Gazette that police had logged more than 2,111 overtime hours and of those hours, 310 were “comp hours earned” overtime, which means that employees took compensation in the form of hours earned, as opposed to overtime pay. According to the Gazette, overtime has cost the county $102,843.69 thus far and overtime pay for the Fire and Rescue Service response was $30,000. Though Pepco has received harsh criticism and negative feedback from both residents and officials for its response time to the storm’s outages, the Gazette …
Monday, July 23, 2012
The increase will raise a household's monthly electricity bill by about $2, according to a statement issued by the Maryland Public Service Commission.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
The "Pack up Pepco" petition, started by Town of Somerset Councilwoman Cathy Pickar, made the morning news on Thursday.
On Thursday, Town of Somerset Councilwoman Cathy Pickar starred on ABC 7's Good Morning Washington to talk about the "Pack up Pepco" campaign that she started in response to the lengthy power outage that much of the area experienced after the June 29 derecho. Pickar's petition is very much a grassroots movement—neighbors helped her prepare the petition, and her daughter, Crystal Pickar, helped with the website. The "Pack up Pepco" song—which is ready and waiting for a flash mob—was written and performed on YouTube by Pickar herself. The lyrics of the refrain capture well the mood of the community post-derecho: Six long days and 100 degrees, the sweat drips thick with corporate greed. The live wires dancin' and the hot sparks fly while the…
Friday, July 20, 2012
The increase will raise a household's monthly electricity bill by about $2, according to a statement issued by the Maryland Public Service Commission.
Of the $68 million rate increase requested by Pepco, the Maryland Public Service Commission has rejected $50 million. Still, the $18 million rate increase "translates into a $2.02 typical residential monthly bill impact" (a 1.69 percent increase), according to a statement issued by the Maryland Public Service Commission on Friday afternoon. In the rejection order, the commission "noted its overall dissatisfaction with Pepco’s performance, and characterized its request to increase returns to shareholders 'before Pepco corrects its sub-par performance' as 'backwards,' " according to the statement. Pepco filed the request on Dec. 16, 2011. "The full record in the case included testimony from 31 witnesses and 11 days of evidentiary hearings, …
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…
Henriot St. Gerard
4:39 pm on Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Hopefully those attending tonight raise some hell regarding Pepco wanting to seek another rate increase http://tinyurl.com/8kdomrv more ›