Stockholders of Pepco’s parent company on Tuesday voted to approve the utility’s merger with Chicago-based Exelon, though service for Montgomery County would still be headquartered in Pepco’s Washington, D.C. offices.
In April, Exelon announced it’s intention to buy Pepco Holdings Inc. for $6.8 billion. Last week, the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) heard from parties interested in intervening in the approval process for the merger.
The Coalition For Utility Reform, led by County Councilmember Roger Berliner and Gaithersburg Councilmember Ryan Spiegel, is asking the PSC to “require half of the merged entity’s profit to be determined by its ability to meet standards” relating to reliability, carbon reduction, customer satisfaction and other factors.
Exelon has promised the PSC the merger would mean cutting the frequency of power outages in Maryland by 38 percent and cutting the average outage duration by 43 percent by the 2018-2020 period.
In its approval filing, Exelon offered to be subject to financial penalties if Pepco or Delmarva Power (another of Pepco Holding Inc.’s utilities) don’t meet those goals.
Exelon also proposed giving $40 million to the Maryland PSC that “can be used as the PSC deems appropriate for customer benefits, such as bill credits, assistance for low-income customers and energy-efficiency measures.”
The Maryland PSC is one of five in the Mid-Atlantic that must approve the merger before it can be completed. Pepco Holdings Inc. includes Delmarava Power and Atlantic City Electric. If Exelon gets approvals from the state commissions and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it will put Pepco under the same parent company as BGE in Baltimore, ComEd in Chicago and PECO in Philadelphia.
Powerupmontco, led by frequent Pepco critic and North Bethesda resident Abbe Milstein, also was admitted as a party to the Pepco-Exelon merger approval case on Friday.
In it’s petition to intervene, the group claims only $29 million of Exelon’s proposed Customer Investment Fund would be allocated to Pepco customers, meaning, “just $50.00 per Maryland customer, a paltry sum when the Commission considers the dilapidated infrastructure Exelon could ultimately acquire as a result of the merger.”
Photo via Abigail Reid
