I like Bethesda, but the fact that during nearly every thunderstorm, the power provided by Pepco goes out in a blackout, makes this a downright unacceptable place to live.
PEPCO SUCKS!!!
The power has been out for about for about twenty minutes and the storm passed about five minutes ago. Still no power. I can't wait to live somewhere that has a reliable power supply AND I can have a diesel powered generator. Looks like there are well over 20,000 people without power in Montgomery County, maybe more.
Frankly, I cannot fathom how Pepco is able to continue operating with such a lousy track record. Furthermore, I can't fathom why the people who live here put up with it! I, for one, cannot wait to move away, if I can.
UPDATE: The Pepco.com website reports "Estimated Restoration: Jul 28, 10:00 PM". That can't be right. I have to conclude it is, as another outage icon reports: "Estimated Restoration: Sep 2, 10:00 AM".
UPDATE 2: Look at this insane report:
| County(State) | Customers Affected | Customers Served |
|---|
Over two hundred thousand (215029, now up to 233574, now 297898, according to Pepco) people are without power!
In trying to search for news coverage of this incompetence, I was unable to find any breaking news on today's outage yet, but I did find this relatively recent article from wjla.com. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds their performance inexcusable. Feedback from commenter "nnead" is spot on:
PEPCO pledges are like promises from politicians up for re-election. Three or four months down the road PEPCO is going to come whinning that they need to increase the price of electricity and the unelected board will once again approve the increases. Politicians will hold up their hands like they had nothing to do with it and next summer it will all happen again. Demand a reduction in executive perks, take away their PEPCO owned ski cottages, beach houses. Stop the working vacations, free trips with miles earned using company travel. Perhaps if they spent a little more time in the DC area working they would understand our anger.
GRRRR! I just found this article at the Washington Post which quotes Debbie Jarvis, a Pepco vice president from an e-mail:
"Power is out to more than 200,000 Pepco customers. We have our crews assessing the damage which is severe. . . . There is extensive damage. Please disregard any ETR (estimated time of restoration) you may have received. This may be a multiple-day event, not multiple weeks."
UPDATE 3: Seriously, Pepco. Your service is abominable. Its now 10PM and service is out for almost 300,000 people. The infrastructure here sucks, and you are to blame. Shut down your company and let a qualified business provide electricity service to the mid-Atlantic regions.
If Pepco cannot be outright shut down, in my humble opinion:
- Joseph M. Rigby should be fired
- David M. Velazquez should be fired
- Kirk J. Emge should be fired
- Anthony J. Kamerick should be fired
- Beverly L. Perry should be fired
- John U. Huffman should be fired
In other words, the management team at PHI is a bunch of incompetent nincompoops. They should all go to the back of the class!
UPDATE 4: Its now Monday afternoon and the power is still out for over 200,000 customers. Also, the Pepco website went down, but appears from my perspective to be accessible, but I'm not sure if its totally operational. I actually overheard someone say that the Pepco website was unavailable while my daughter and I were getting breakfast at the Pancake House in Rockville which was thankfully open! I confirmed it via an article at the Washington Post website, and found this comment by "mozeewink" to the article so spot on:
I am looking for a home to buy and currently live in Montgomery County. Granted, yesterday was an extreme storm, but the constant outages with PEPCO have convinced me to live outside of Montgomery County. 6 times in one year is way too often for the power to go out
UPDATE 5: Monday, July 26th, 2010 - power is back on at Parkside at 3:15PM!! Yeah!
UPDATE 6: Looks like I spoke too soon! The power is again off at 3:35PM.
UPDATE 7: Its now 6:38PM and the power is still off. Like I said: Pepco, You Suck! How can the power come on, only to go out again twenty minutes later. I'm not aware of any follow-up storm, so I have to assume its most likely mismanagement. I'd love to see Pepco's emergency response plan. It probably reads something like this: "Tell the media we are working 24/7. Better yet, blame the weather."
