In his capacity as Chair of the Montgomery County Senate Delegation, Senator Rich Madaleno (D-18) has written the Public Service Commission asking if Pepco's performance on restoring power after outages meets industry standards. Madaleno says the outage last Sunday, which left thousands of customers in the dark for days, "is just the latest in a series of events that have pushed the community’s patience to the breaking point." Madaleno also announces his intent to hold a joint hearing of the county's Senate and House delegations on Pepco's performance.
Following is his letter to the Public Service Commission.
July 29, 2010
Chairman Douglas R. N. Nazarian
Commissioner Harold D. Williams
Commissioner Susanne Brogan
Commissioner Lawrence Brenner
Commissioner Therese M. Goldsmith
Maryland Public Service Commission
William Donald Schaefer Tower
6 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
Dear Commissioners:
I write to you today in relation to your authority to hear matters about the quality of utility service, specifically electrical utility service, and more specifically Pepco service, in region. As you certainly know, our region was hard hit by a sudden, intense storm on the afternoon of Sunday, July 25th. Hundreds of thousands of residents in Montgomery County (and elsewhere) lost power that afternoon, and, as I write this letter (four days later), many thousands of Montgomery County residents are still without power and without reliable information as to when they may expect the restoration of that power.
While everyone understands that natural events do occur and that it may take some time for Pepco to get their service up and running again, this outage is just the latest in a series of events that have pushed the community’s patience to the breaking point. People have long memories when it comes to losing their electricity, and they still remember Pepco’s poor performance after the ice storm in 1999 and following Tropical Storm Isabel in 2003. Additionally, communities around my district and around the county have stories about frequent outages whenever winds gust over 15 mph or a heavy rainfall occurs.
In a press release issued by Pepco in 2004 the vice president for emergency preparedness spoke about how the company was “continuously improving by developing our ability to communicate with our customers and providing more information to help our customers plan their lives…” While I respect the work that Pepco has done to restore service after this most recent storm, their inability to provide accurate and timely information to their customers – again – has infuriated many.
I would like to know from the Public Service Commission (PSC) what, if any, industry standards are in place for assessing the quality of restoration work done by an electric utility following widespread outages, expected or unexpected. Are there methods in place for assessing the company’s ability to communicate with customers? Where does Pepco stand in relation to such standards? If they do not meet some minimum standard, what consequences do they face?
Considering this is the second large scale failure of their distribution network this year, one may conclude that this network is no longer adequate for the weather challenges of the mid-Atlantic region. I would also like to ask if the PSC has reviewed Pepco’s equipment maintenance and replacement schedule to see if it meets industry standards. As we deal with the aftermath of this storm, constituents have been contacting my office and those of my colleagues to report repeated outages during summer months from thunderstorms. There appears to be growing discontent with Pepco’s quality of service in general. Therefore, is there an objective measurement of performance for a distribution company and how does Pepco rate on any scale used by the PSC?
As the chair of the Montgomery Senate Delegation, I intend to convene a joint hearing with our county House colleagues to review these issues later this fall. We will provide Pepco with an opportunity to present an analysis of their performance during the two major system failures, as well as the general performance when dealing with outages. I hope that the PSC will also participate in the hearing and address some of these concerns.
We have lived through too many years of too many unmet promises and we need to do better for our residents and our business community.
Sincerely,
Richard S. Madaleno, Jr.
cc: Senator Jamie Raskin, Vice Chair, Montgomery County Senate Delegation
Delegate Brian Feldman, Chair, Montgomery County House Delegation
Delegate Susan Lee, Vice Chair, Montgomery County House Delegation
Montgomery County Council
Ms. Therese Yewell, State Relations Director, Pepco Holdings Inc.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Madaleno Writes Public Service Commission on Pepco
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5 comments:
Adam,
You continue to prove that you are willing to sacrifice your journalistic integrity for petty politics by ignoring every positive development on the Atterbeary campaign.
Yesterday, the Atterbeary campaign received the endorsement of Former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan. Every politico who reads your blog must know that the endorsement of Doug Duncan is something that carries enough weight that it would be on your blog immediately if it were for any other candidate. When describing Duncan's endorsement of Becky Wagner, you personally referred to it as "one of her biggest assets."
You have also had opportunities to write about Atterbeary's endorsements from ATU Local 689, MC NOW, Delegate Frank Turner, School Board President Reggie Felton, and the Democratic Womens PAC of Maryland. But you'd rather play petty politics and focus on distractions and non-issues like yard signs. As Delegate Saqib Ali said regarding your previous cheap-shot attack posts on Atterbeary's campaign, "Yawn. What a non-story."
Disclosure: This comment has been written by a supporter of Vanessa Atterbeary.
John D'Elia
johnmichaeldelia@gmail.com
Let's talk about these endorsements, shall we?
Delegate Frank Turner, who lives in Howard County, is Vanessa's uncle. She does not acknowledge that fact on her website. She should. What does it say about a candidate when the only sitting elected official who endorses her is a relative?
ATU Local 689 is based in Forestville, in Prince George's County.
MCNOW has endorsed all five candidates in the D18 Delegate race.
Former School Board President Reggie Felton is now a D.C. resident.
The Democratic Womens PAC endorses... women, hence its name.
So far, the following organizations have not endorsed Vanessa: MCEA, SEIU, the AFL-CIO, Progressive Maryland, the Fraternal Order of Police, Equality Maryland, the Sierra Club, LCV and NARAL. In other words, none of the influential institutional endorsements have gone to your candidate. Even the Fire Fighters did not endorse her and her husband is a fire fighter.
Doug Duncan's support is worth having. But why should I lift a finger for a campaign that wantonly breaks the law and then accuses me of being responsible for its lawlessness?
Do yourselves a favor: Grow up. Obey the law. Put some substance into your campaign. Stop whining and go back to work.
Mr. Madaleno writes"...We have livd through too many unmet promises and we need to do better for our residents and our business."
There is also reference made to the ice-storm of 1999 and Hurricane Isabella, 2002 and the poor performance of PEPCO.
I think PEPCO is doing the best they can do- they even bought in outside help.
If the concern for PEPCO not doing their job in 1999 and 20003 and now 2010- just what have you been doing about this problem for the past 11 years.
It appears that "unmet promises" are not just a PEPCO problem.
Like Leggett you are attacking an issue for politics sake-because they are the easiest target at this moment.
They are the enemy of the month.
If PEPCO did such a lousy job in 1999 and in 2003 why wasn't anything done- could it be that it was not an election year?
I am really disappointed by the choices the voters are facing this year.
There is no substance- just rehashing of the same platitudes.
Bob Fustero
The biggest story by far in District 18 is that the Chairman of the Montgomery County Senate Delegation(who just happens to be from District 18), who led the charge for the largest tax increase in state history including a 20% increase in the job-killing regressive sales tax, is lnow leading the charge to have the huge, state teachers pension costs transferred to Montgomery County. This will lead to great pressure to add to the just received 13.5% increase in county property taxes, 240% increase in county residential energy taxes and 75% increase in county cellphone taxes. The answer: turn your thermostat up during times of record heat.
Vanessa is strongly oppoosed to the transfer of state teachers pension costs to the county. That is the only reason anybody who can think needs to vote for her and against the slate. All the kings horses and all the kings men can't change that single fact.
I was the only candidate for any public office to testify against Pepco's recent rate hike request at the PSC's public hearing in Rockville. There I learned that the increase in county energy taxes on Pepco is more than the requested rate hike. Why weren't the elected officials, whose endorsements are supposed to be so important, at the PSC Pepco rate-hike hearing, which was held in the County Executive office building, where the annual electricity bill is $1 million a year?
Hello my name is Anjell Mays Im writing this letter to voice my concern about my Pepco bill from June 30th 2010 thru August 2nd 2010 in the amount of $423.94. When I moved to 1905 Brooks Dr. #101 in Fox Club Apartment my bill for July 17th 2009 thru August 31st 2009 was $413 and Im trying to fine out why never year for the months of June thru August is so high and I always get an estement bill for the month of june to pay and July and I get a actual bill for July to pay in August. I called Peco and I called and Ms. Addison told me that my bill is like that because of heat is so high for these months and my A/C unit as to work so hard to work to keep my apartment cool. Like I tood her that I work during the day and no one is in my house during the day from 6:15am thru 8
:30pm in my A/C is not running during the day. I then when to Pepco on Thursday August 19th 2010 about my bill again and they told me that they could not help me because there are to many outages going on and that I would how to come back. So when I got house that evening i called and I spoke to Mr. Maddann and he told that I need to do a customers reading and like i told him that I cant do that because I like in apartment and not a house, and that I have no way to read my meter. Then Mr. Maddann said that those are not Pepco meters anad he also said that it may be my unit, I told him no that its not my unit I just got a new unit on May 5th 2010. I talked to the rental office about my Pepco bill because when I talked to Ms. Addison she said it may be my unit, thats what made me ask the rental office.
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