Berliner Releases Statement on Pepco Rate Increase Request
Montgomery County Councilmember Roger Berliner made the following statement on Pepco’s request for a rate increase:
“Pepco today asked the Maryland Public Service Commission to approve recovery in rates of more than $43 million of expenditures. Pepco is within its rights to seek such approval. However, it is the responsibility of the Commission to scrutinize that request and ensure that only those expenditures that were prudently incurred and that are ‘used and useful’ are allowed to be passed through to ratepayers. In the most recent rate cases, the Commission has found that Pepco had sought recovery of expenditures that were not proper and reduced their requests by more than 50 percent. I would fully expect our County to actively participate in this proceeding, as we have in the past in accordance with legislation that I sponsored, and work to ensure that Pepco does not pass on to ratepayers costs that are not proper.
“Pepco is also seeking an increase in its return on equity. I continue to believe that Pepco’s financial returns should be based on its performance. While the number and duration of outages has improved since 2010 and their recent investments and actions have raised them from the lowest quartile nationally, in my view, its overall performance has not risen to the level that justifies an increase in its return on equity. It is still a utility that is ranks in the bottom half of all utilities in terms of performance. That is not good enough for the residents of Montgomery County and it should not be good enough for the Commission.”
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