Steve Burns
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Electric provider Pepco is asking the Maryland Public Service Commission for a ten percent across-the-board rate increase for its Maryland ratepayers, amounting to about a $15 increase on the average monthly bill.
Pepco attributed the need for more money to infrastructure improvements, though Anya Schoolman with the Community Power Network didn’t buy it.
“This was not a surprise,” Schoolman told WMAL. “Exelon had to borrow $6 billion to complete the merger, and they need to make that money some way.”
Pepco’s merge with Chicago-based power giant Exelon was completed last month. Schoolman said things are “slowly changing” as a result, citing sudden layoffs and these rate increases.
“Slowly, you’re going to see them consolidating personnel, consolidating functions. People are going to lose jobs,” she said. “Money doesn’t grow on trees, so the question is, what do they do to become more efficient, and is that in the public interest or not?”
The long road leading to the merger was predicated on some benefits negotiated by the District, including two $50 credits to all ratepayers and moving jobs to the District. Pepco pointed to improvements to main distribution lines and the implementation for smart meters as to the necessity of a rate increase, their first request since 2013. However, Schoolman said it all points back to Exelon’s business interests.
“Exelon has a fundamentally different interest than Pepco did,” she said. “Their primary business is wholesale power generation with their 23 nuclear power plants. So while they’re busy being our utility, they’re more busy keeping wholesale power prices high.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (Photo: Pepco/Exelon)
