Pepco

Last updated
Potomac Electric Power Company
Pepco
Company type Subsidiary
IndustryUtilities
FoundedApril 28, 1896;128 years ago (1896-04-28) (as Potomac Electric Power Company)
FounderOscar T. Crosby
Headquarters
United States  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Area served
 Washington metropolitan area
ProductsElectric power
Number of employees
1,429
Parent Exelon
ASN 17347 OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website pepco.com

The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American utility company that supplies electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It is owned by Exelon.

Contents

The company's current trademarked slogan is "Your life. Plugged in." Its former slogan was "We're connected to you by more than power lines."

Pepco's bulk transmission system consists of transmission lines operating at 115 kV, 138kV, 230 kV and 500 kV. Pepco has interconnections with Potomac Edison (230kV, 500kV), Baltimore Gas and Electric (500kV, 230kV, 115kV), and Dominion Virginia Power (500kV, 230kV).

History

The company's predecessor, Potomac Electric Co., was organized in 1891 to provide street lighting and streetcar power in Georgetown and Northwest D.C. [1] After suffering during the Panic of 1893, the company filed bankruptcy and, on November 6, 1895, was acquired by Oscar T. Crosby and Charles A. Lieb for $5,500. [1]

The company was incorporated as Potomac Electric Power Company on April 28, 1896 in Virginia. It became a subsidiary of the North American Company, which owned the Washington Traction and Electric Company, one of the private streetcar companies in Washington. [1]

On December 17, 1896, after a court battle, the company received a contract to light the city of Washington, D.C.

In January 1889, the company merged with its rival, United States Electric Lighting Company.

In 1899, the company merged with Washington Traction and Electric Company.

In June 1901, the company filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by the Washington Railway and Electric Company.

In 1905, revenues exceeded $1 million for the first time. [1]

In 1906, the company began construction of the first unit of the Benning Road Power Plant, along the Anacostia River. When its last unit was completed in 1931, the power plant had a 185,000-kilowatt capacity.

In 1928, the North American Company, a holding company that owned many public utilities, gained control of Washington Railway and Electric.

The Public Utility Holding Company Act was enacted in 1935 to force the breakup of large utility holding companies. Under this law, the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1942 ordered the North American Company and its subsidiaries to split up. [2] A years-long legal battle ensued, culminating in a Supreme Court decision upholding the order. [3] As a result, Pepco's stock was distributed to Washington Railway's shareholders in December 1947, making Pepco an independent, publicly traded company. [4] [5]

In 1954, revenue exceeded $50 million for the first time. [1]

In 1969, the company suspended its dividend due to rising costs. [1]

In 1980, the company cancelled plans to build a $930 million power plant in Montgomery County as a result of reduced demand. [6]

In September 1995, the company announced a merger with Baltimore Gas & Electric; [7] however, the merger was cancelled in December 1997. [8]

In 2001, Pepco agreed to acquire Conectiv Power Delivery, the parent company of Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric, for $2.2 billion. [9] The purchase was completed in 2002, with Pepco and Conectiv becoming subsidiaries of a newly formed holding company, Pepco Holdings. [10] In 2003, Pepco's investment subsidiary, Potomac Capital Investment, was transferred to Pepco Holdings. [11]

In 2014, Pepco Holdings agreed to be acquired by Exelon for $6.8 billion. [12] The deal faced opposition from Pepco customers and from officials in Washington and Maryland, but was ultimately approved. [13] The acquisition was completed on March 23, 2016, making Pepco a subsidiary of Exelon. [14] [15]

Controversies

Most hated company in America

In 2011, Business Insider named the company first on its list of "The 19 Most Hated Companies In America" based on its American Customer Satisfaction Index rating. [16]

Poor reliability and outages

An investigation by The Washington Post in 2010 faulted Pepco for poor reliability. The report noted that the company's performance had slipped since 2005, comparing poorly to other major utilities in the frequency and duration of power outages. Thousands of people lost power for as many as five days after only 5–8 inches of heavy wet snow. [17]

During the June 2012 North American derecho, more than half of the customers in Montgomery County, Maryland lost electric power. The company was criticized for being slow to restore power and for charging its customers for the power outage. [18]

Environmental impact

The company's Benning Road Power Plant produced air pollution that negatively affected neighboring communities. In 2017, the company agreed to pay regulators $1.6 million for violations of the Clean Water Act. [19] In October 2023, Pepco agreed to pay $47 million in costs and $10 million in penalties to D.C. for decades of discharging toxic chemicals in the city, affecting the Anacostia River and other areas. [20]

Alleged fraud

In March 2022, the D.C. Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the People’s Counsel alleged Pepco was committing a "pattern of systemic violations" in carrying out community solar panel installations. [21] According to the complaint, Pepco has botched its handling of community solar projects in numerous ways. The utility is undercounting solar energy generation at community solar projects, according to the filing, and is “systematically failing” to provide accurate and timely solar credits to customers. [22]

Related Research Articles

Commonwealth Edison, commonly known by syllabic abbreviation as ComEd, is the largest electric utility in Illinois, and the primary electric provider in Chicago and much of Northern Illinois. Its service territory stretches roughly from Iroquois County on the south to the Wisconsin border on the north and from the Iowa border on the west to the Indiana border on the east. For more than 100 years, Commonwealth Edison has been the primary electric delivery services company for Northern Illinois. Today, ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation, one of the nation's largest electric and gas utility holding companies. ComEd provides electric service to more than 3.8 million customers across Northern Illinois. The company's revenues totaled more than $7 billion in 2023.

The Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc. (PSEG) is a publicly traded diversified energy company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, US, established in 1985 with a legacy dating back to 1903.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Electric Power</span> United States utility company

American Electric Power Company, Inc. (AEP), is an American domestic electric utility company in the United States. It is one of the largest electric utility companies in the country, with more than five million customers in 11 states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exelon</span> American utility company

Exelon Corporation is a public utility headquartered in Chicago, and incorporated in Pennsylvania. Exelon is the largest electric parent company in the United States by revenue and is the largest regulated electric utility in the United States with approximately 10 million customers. The company is ranked 99th on the Fortune 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constellation Energy</span> Energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland

Constellation Energy Corporation is an American energy company headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. The company provides electric power, natural gas, and energy management services. It has approximately two million customers across the continental United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FirstEnergy</span> American electric utility

FirstEnergy Corp. is a privately owned electric utility headquartered in Akron, Ohio. It was established when Ohio Edison merged with Centerior Energy in 1997. Its subsidiaries and affiliates are involved in the distribution, transmission, and generation of electricity, as well as energy management and other energy-related services. Its ten electric utility operating companies comprise one of the United States' largest investor-owned utilities, based on serving 6 million customers within a 65,000-square-mile (170,000 km2) area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. Its generation subsidiaries control more than 16,000 megawatts of capacity, and its distribution lines span over 194,000 miles. In 2018, FirstEnergy ranked 219 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest public corporations in the United States by revenue.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) is a subsidiary of the Exelon Corporation and Maryland’s largest gas and electric utility. BGE earlier had created the holding company Constellation Energy in 1999. Constellation Energy was acquired by Exelon in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delmarva Power</span> Energy company

Delmarva Power is an energy company that provides electricity and natural gas to customers on portions of the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware and Maryland. The company is a subsidiary of Exelon.

Pepco Holdings was a holding company incorporated in February 2001 for the purpose of effecting the acquisition of Conectiv Power Delivery by Potomac Electric Power Company. The acquisition was completed on August 1, 2002, at which time Pepco and Conectiv became wholly owned subsidiaries of PHI. Conectiv itself had been formed in 1998 to be the holding company of Delmarva Power & Light Company and Atlantic City Electric Company (ACE) in connection with the combination of DPL and ACE. In 2005, PHI resumed the use of the Delmarva Power and ACE brands for purposes of operations, with the result that Conectiv Energy was the only remaining Conectiv brand and was restricted for PHI's energy production facilities. Operations of the various companies controlled by Pepco Holdings take place in the Mid-Atlantic states of the United States. Pepco serves Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs, Delmarva Power serves the Delaware and Maryland portions of the Delmarva Peninsula, and Atlantic City Electric serves South Jersey. In 2008, Delmarva Power sold its service area in the Virginia portion of the peninsula to A&N Electric Cooperative and Old Dominion Electric Cooperative for US$44 million. In April 2010, Conectiv Energy was sold to Calpine Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Streetcars in Washington, D.C.</span> Streetcars that existed in Washington until 1962

Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Company</span> Former public utility holding company

The North American Company was a holding company incorporated in New Jersey on June 14, 1890, and controlled by Henry Villard, to succeed to the assets and property of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. It owned public utilities and public transport companies and was broken up in 1946, largely to comply with the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.

WEC Energy Group is an American company based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that provides electricity and natural gas to 4.4 million customers across four states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PacifiCorp</span> Electric power company serving the Western United States

PacifiCorp is an electric power company in the western United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RCN Corporation</span> American cable television, telephone, and Internet service provider

RCN Corporation, originally Residential Communications Network, founded in 1993 and based in Princeton, New Jersey, was the first American facilities-based ("overbuild") provider of bundled cable telephony, cable television, and internet service delivered over its own hybrid fiber-coaxial local network as well as dialup and DSL Internet service to consumers in the Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, the Lehigh Valley in eastern Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. areas.

The Capital Traction Company was the smaller of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., in the early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Railway and Electric Company</span>

The Washington Railway and Electric Company (WRECo) was the larger of the two major streetcar companies in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs in the early decades of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PECO Energy Company</span> Energy company

PECO, formerly the Philadelphia Electric Company, is an energy company founded in 1881 and incorporated in 1929. It became part of Exelon Corporation in 2000 when it merged with Commonwealth Edison's holding company Unicom Corp.

Opower was an American company founded in 2007, that provides a software-as-a-service customer engagement platform for utilities. It existed as an independent corporation until its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2016. The Opower product line is under the Oracle Utilities global business unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benning Road Power Plant</span> Former power station in Washington, DC

The Benning Road Power Plant was a power plant owned by PEPCO and located in Washington, D.C. The 19-acre facility was built in 1906, and underwent several changes before being demolished in 2012. The facility was powered by coal until 1976, when it was converted to petroleum. By the early 2000s, the facility was capable of producing 550 megawatts of electricity and operated for an average of 10–15 days per year.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hamilton, Martha M. (April 26, 1996). "THE COMPANY THAT STAYED CURRENT". The Washington Post .
  2. ↑ "Utility is told to cut links with 56 units". Chicago Tribune. AP. April 15, 1942 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Top court upholds death sentence act". The Charlotte Observer. AP. April 2, 1946 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Edward C. Stone (November 21, 1947). "New Pepco common listed on New York and D.C. exchanges". Washington Evening Star– via Library of Congress.
  5. ↑ Edward C. Stone (November 18, 1947). "SEC approves stock plan". Washington Evening Star– via Library of Congress.
  6. ↑ Knight, Jerry (June 20, 1980). "Pepco to Build No New Plants For Ten Years". The Washington Post .
  7. ↑ Southerl, Daniel (September 26, 1995). "PEPCO TO MERGE WITH BALTIMORE GAS & ELECTRIC". The Washington Post .
  8. ↑ Hamilton, Martha M. (December 23, 1997). "PEPCO, BALTIMORE GAS CANCEL TWO-YEAR-OLD PLAN TO MERGE". The Washington Post .
  9. ↑ Dan Thanh Dang (February 13, 2001). "Pepco set to acquire Conectiv". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  10. ↑ Marty Nil (August 2, 2002). "Pepco and Conectiv complete merger". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2022-07-10.
  11. ↑ Clabaugh, Jeff (June 17, 2003). "Pepco Holdings absorbs investment arm". American City Business Journals .
  12. ↑ Michael J. de la Merced (April 30, 2014). "Hoping for stability, utility operator Exelon agrees to buy Pepco for $6.8 billion". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  13. ↑ Gavin Bade (February 25, 2016). "A brief history of the Exelon-Pepco merger saga". Utility Dive. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  14. ↑ "Pepco Holdings and Exelon close merger following approval by the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia" (Press release). Exelon. March 23, 2016. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  15. ↑ Scott Dance (March 23, 2016). "BGE owner Exelon closes $6.9 billion deal to buy Pepco". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2021-05-08.
  16. ↑ Lubin, Gus; Giang, Vivian (June 29, 2011). "The 19 Most Hated Companies In America". Business Insider .
  17. ↑ Stephens, Joe; Flaherty, Mary Pat (December 5, 2010). "Why Pepco Can't Keep the Lights On". The Washington Post .
  18. ↑ Mallonee, Mary Kay; Olabanji, Jummy; Roussey, Tom (July 16, 2012). "Pepco, BGE to make money from power outage". WJLA-TV .
  19. ↑ "The Justice Department and EPA Reach Clean Water Act Settlement with Pepco to Reduce Pollution to Anacostia River" (Press release). United States Department of Justice. January 13, 2017.
  20. ↑ Moyer, Justin Wm (2023-10-04). "Pepco to pay D.C. more than $57 million for Anacostia River pollution". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  21. ↑ "Court document" (PDF). edocket.dcpsc.org. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  22. ↑ "Pepco 'Systematically Mishandling' Solar Projects, Says DC AG". Archived from the original on March 23, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.