Some thoughts on Exelon’s takeover of Pepco.
Bruce W. Radford is publisher and editor-in-chief of Public Utilities Fortnightly. Reach him at radford@fortnightly.com.
So it has come to this. Three decades a ratepayer, since 1983 writing a check each month to Potomac Electric Power Co., and now I learn that if Exelon wins approval for its planned takeover, neither I nor my neighbors on Connecticut Avenue in downtown Washington, D.C., will have Pepco to kick around anymore.
In fact, this month and next, the District of Columbia Public Service commission will hold community hearings at various schools and public libraries around the city, inviting ordinary citizens like you and me to take the microphone for three minutes and vent, either pro or con. The commission will hold formal evidentiary hearings from Feb. 9 thru the 13th.
Understand that during the past decade Pepco has taken a beating in the local press over problems with reliability - a flurry of small blackouts caused by summer thunderstorms in Pepco's suburban Maryland service territories, which are populated chock-a-block with government lawyers and lobbyists. Yet in truth I must add that Pepco more recently has made great strides in improving reliability in this area.