Utility customers address concerns at public hearing

WASHINGTON – Since the June derecho knocked out power for thousands of people in the area, residents have been in an uproar over the performance of utility companies. But Wednesday at a public meeting in Prince George’s County, some voiced support for providers like Baltimore Gas Electric.

“We expect the power to go out on just about every couple of storms,” said BGE customer Bob Bruninga. “I kind of look forward to it. I get to fire up and see if my generator works.”

And Lorretta Burgess told the Maryland Public Service Commission that Pepco wasn’t responsible for the outages.

“We need to take down these huge trees,” she said.

Next regulators head to Annapolis. A verdict on the utilities’ storm response will be issued after a September hearing with the state’s power providers.

WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report. Follow Kate Ryan and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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