The PEPCO response is not adequate. The company is clearly not up to the task of dealing with such large-scale outages in a timely manner. Both City of Rockville and Montgomery County elected officials, as well as their staffs have worked hard to get PEPCO up to an acceptable standard. Both governments will be working to get answers and results for the future. Ultimately PEPCO is regulated by the MD Public Service Commission, and I encourage citizens to go on that website to express their opinions. A sustained chorus of complaints to that body will help get the body’s attention.

The PEPCO problems are long term and there are no quick solutions. But I’m not confident in the company’s plans to adequately address these kinds of situations based on this latest outage. PEPCO has recently been more aggressive in their tree trimming, but it has a long way to go to get to where it needs to be. And it seems to struggle to get enough crews out to handle large-scale blackouts.

The MD Public Service Commission website is: http://webapp.psc.state.md.us/Intranet/home.cfm. It took a while for it to respond; that may because many people are currently trying to access it.

Mark Pierzchala
Rockville City Councilmember

Tree trimming is not the answer. We need to update our 1950s infrastructure, but a private corporation providing public utilities is never going to make that investment voluntarily. Our elected leadership, who contract with Pepco, are the only people who can force the improvements.
It's quite a metaphor, that in the nation's capital, we are cancelling the 4th of July due to our crumbling infrastructure.

I agree that tree trimming is not the total answer, but it's what PEPCO can do in the present time. I agree that governmental pressure is appropriate, but so is commercial and institutional pressure. Some companies and institutions are really hurting from this. I'd personally like to see the undergrounding of the lines, but this would be a hugely expensive and lengthy process. I agree with the observation about the DC localities cancellng the fireworks; that's a great insight. The Rockville Council has just added this item to its agenda for the July 9 meeting. I'm hoping that we can start a constructive process to get this resolved, and not just have a lot of griping.

Mark Pierzchala

Thanks for the comments, but dumping on PEPCO is still the norm after all this time since the last major power outage, when it became clear, at least to me, that tree trimming is not the big issue (and Pepco has been raising citizen ire ever since with aggressive trimming). Branches on lines causes some outages; but the big problem is not branches, but large old trees coming down on power lines, houses, vehicles, and people. In the older, established suburban neighborhoods, like Bethesda and Rockville, we love our big trees, including the ones that are close to power lines. At the same time, we're not willing to pay the higher electric rates that would pay for burying the power lines. So what's a public policymaker to do: say take down the dangerous trees; or lobby the Public Service Commission for rate increases to fund burying the power lines (even incrementally in conjunction with other street work would help)? Either would bring howls from the public, of course, so it's easier to pander by dumping on PEPCO. My recommendation is to do both. (Full disclosure: I have a personal interest in this; I'm bothered when my European friends say our country looks so ugly with these power lines everywhere.) A Montgomery County council member answered me last year: "The problem is PEPCO; PEPCO has problems." OK, PEPCO has problems; does that let us off the hook?" Just one more in a universe of instances where Pogo's observation applies: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Rockville City Council has this topic on its agenda July 9. Montgomery County has a meeting July 19 with a wide cast of characters including reps from the Public Service Commission. Even if the lines are not put underground, PEPCO is slow in its response.

Ken has good comments on the big trees. People have complained when PEPCO has trimmed trees. Undergrounding the lines would be hugely expensive, but I think worthwhile.

Mark--Really disappointed in your approach ---You sound like Ike and O'malley--Lets just beat up on the Utility. Certainly, Pepco has to continue to make improvements. Their tree cutting program seems to be moving ahead, but the Berliner approach is to introduce a bill to impede the tree management program and then turn around and beat up on Pepco for slow response ---Mark, Please do not demagogue this ---thats far too easy ---you are above that ---Lets solve the program and move on---

It's definitely an expensive issue, one way or another. I lost all the food in my refrigerator and freezer, and while I'm not happy about it, I can afford to replace it, plus eat out in the meantime. But I really feel bad for the people who will be a bit hungry for a few days because they can't afford to replace what they lost, or because they lost several days' pay when they businesses they work for were unable to open.
I am curious what the economic impact is of power outages like these, especially when you factor in the cost of repairs, city employee overtime, etc; and I wonder how many of these outages we have to have before a more permanent infrastructure solution begins to look more affordable.

Ken ---I must admit I was really putt off and disappointed with the first two sentences of Marks first post . He sounded like some of the other big mouth politicians who have not added one thing to the solution of this challenge ie O'Malley, Legget and Berliner---I have always thought Mark was more thoughful AND he does go on to offer some reasonable approaches; although the idea of undergrounding the lines is just not going to happen

thank $deity our power came back on today July 4th. I've been sick from the heat.