Pepco
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The Potomac Electric Power Company, known as Pepco, is a public utility supplying electric power to the city of Washington, D.C., and to surrounding communities in Maryland. It has operated there since the 1920s.
The company's trademarked slogan, as of 2003, is "We're connected to you by more than power lines."
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[edit] History
Pepco was founded in the late 19th Century as a subsidiary of the Washington Traction and Electric Company, one of the private streetcar companies in Washington. Surplus power was then sold to other electric streetcar companies and to cable car companies so that they could convert to electricity. Later, the power was also sold to business and residential customers. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 forced the North American Company, the holding company, to divest itself of either their streetcar operations or their power generating utility and as power generation was far more profitable, North American choose to divest itself of the transport entity.
In 2001, the company was reorganized and became a unit of Pepco Holdings, Inc.
[edit] Transmission system
PEPCO's bulk transmission system consists of transmission lines operating at 115,000 volts, 230,000 volts and 500,000 volts. PEPCO has interconnections with Baltimore Gas and Electric and Dominion Virginia Power.
[edit] Criticism
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 both the frequency and duration of power outages. Also, thousands of people lost power for as many as 5 days after only 5-8 inches of heavy wet snow. [1] 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.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Stephens, Joe; Flaherty, Mary Pat (December 5, 2010), "Why Pepco Can't Keep the Lights On", The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120403721.html, retrieved February 1, 2011
- ^ Lubin, Gus (June 29, 2011). "The 19 Most Hated Companies In America". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/most-hated-companies-america-2011-6?op=1. Retrieved January 19, 2012.
[edit] External links
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