WASHINGTON – The Maryland Public Service commission wants residents to weigh in on how well they think their electricity companies handled the massive power outages that occurred when the June 29 derecho left hundreds of thousands in the dark.
The commission, which regulates public utilities, will hold eight public hearings in August for the public to testify. The dates have not been set, but will occur before the utilities are questioned by the PSC in September.
After every major outage, power companies must turn in reports on how their operations handled outages. Those reports must be filed within 21 days of the end of the storm. The PSC will review those reports in what it describes as “legislative-style” hearings on Sept. 13 and 14.
The hearings will include a review of the performance of all the utlities regulated by the PSC, including Pepco, BGE, Potomac Edison, the Potomac Electric Power Co. and the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc.
The PSC also will take written testimony until Sept. 10. Comments should be addressed to:
David J. Collins, Executive Secretary
Maryland Public Service Commission William Donald Schaefer Tower 6 St. Paul St., 16th Floor Baltimore, MD 21202.
The hearing schedule will be posted on the Maryland Public Service Commission website.
WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report. Follow Kate and WTOP on Twitter.
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