Maryland PSC May Revisit Pepco Rate Hike Ruling

The Maryland Public Service Commission indicated this week that it may revisit a ruling it made last month to award some of a rate increase sought by Pepco.

Maryland regulators rejected the bulk of Pepco’s $68 million request three weeks after a storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and led to widespread outrage over the length of time the utility took to restore electricity to its customers.

Regulators granted only $18 million of the request; for most of Pepco’s 531,000 Maryland residential customers, this translates into an average rate hike of $1.89 per month.

That increase may decrease if the Office of People’s Counsel has its way. In an Aug. 20 filing to the PSC, the office asked regulators to revisit a portion of their ruling that allows Pepco to recover costs for smart meters. It remains unclear how much the rate hike would drop.

More