Commissioners Outraged at Possibility of BGE, Pepco Billing for Lost Income During Storm

Carroll County Commissioner Haven Shoemaker said he was outraged after to customers who were without power for up to a week .

"That is outrageous, that is so absurd," Shoemaker said in a recent board of commissioners meeting. "Those people who were without power in the 100 degree heat, they’re gonna get a bill for BGE and Pepco’s lost profits."

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According to a county news release, Commissioners Shoemaker and Doug Howard sent a letter to the Public Service Commission (PSC) asking that it "use extreme discretion in reviewing the billing allowed as a result of this event and not grant any waivers to the utilities to allow them to recover additional costs from customers who experienced power outages."

The letter also requests that the PSC "work with the utilities to improve communication during outages, including providing specific outage locations to emergency personnel to ensure the welfare of local residents effected by the outage, to direct the power companies to increase their efforts to bury power lines in order to prevent future outages due to downed trees and to examine staffing levels and long-term maintenance programs to ensure Marylanders have a safe, modern and resilient power delivery system."

Regulations issued in January of this year allow the public power utilities operating in Maryland to charge customers during power outages for one day of service, according to the news release.

Commissioner Shoemaker said “there is no reason that customers should have to pay for service that they don’t receive. This is absurd."

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