The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is an American

utility In economics, utility is a measure of a certain person's satisfaction from a certain state of the world. Over time, the term has been used with at least two meanings. * In a normative context, utility refers to a goal or objective that we wish ...

company that supplies

electric power Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a electric circuit, circuit. Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power (physics), power, defined as one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with oth ...

to the city of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and to surrounding communities in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. It is owned by

Exelon Exelon Corporation is an American 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 Uni ...

. 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 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 b ...

(500kV, 230kV, 115kV), and

Dominion Virginia Power Dominion Energy, Inc., commonly referred to as Dominion, is an American energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of Ut ...

(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. After suffering during the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...

, the company filed

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

and, on November 6, 1895, was acquired by Oscar T. Crosby and Charles A. Lieb for $5,500. The company was incorporated as Potomac Electric Power Company on April 28, 1896 in Virginia. It became a subsidiary of the

North American 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 publ ...

, which owned the

Washington Traction and Electric Company The Washington Railway and Electric Company (WREC) 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. Founded as the Washington and Great Falls Electric Rai ...

, one of the private

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

companies in Washington. 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 United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

. In 1899, the company merged with Washington Traction and Electric Company. In June 1901, the company filed for

and was acquired by the Washington Railway and Electric Company. In 1905, revenues exceeded $1 million for the first time. In 1906, the company began construction of the first unit of the

Benning Road Power Plant 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 ...

, along the Anacostia River. When its last unit was completed in 1931, the power plant had a 185,000-kilowatt capacity. In 1928, the

, a holding company that owned many public utilities, gained control of Washington Railway and Electric. The

Public Utility Holding Company Act The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA), also known as the Wheeler-Rayburn Act, was a US federal law giving the Securities and Exchange Commission authority to regulate, license, and break up electric utility holding companies. I ...

was enacted in 1935 to force the breakup of large utility holding companies. Under this law, the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

in 1942 ordered the North American Company and its subsidiaries to split up. A years-long legal battle ensued, culminating in a Supreme Court decision upholding the order. As a result, Pepco's stock was distributed to Washington Railway's shareholders in December 1947, making Pepco an independent, publicly traded company. In 1954, revenue exceeded $50 million for the first time. In 1969, the company suspended its

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders, after which the stock exchange decreases the price of the stock by the dividend to remove volatility. The market has no control over the stock price on open on the ex ...

due to rising costs. In 1980, the company cancelled plans to build a $930 million power plant in Montgomery County as a result of reduced demand. In September 1995, the company announced a merger with Baltimore Gas & Electric; however, the merger was cancelled in December 1997. In 2001, Pepco agreed to acquire Conectiv Power Delivery, the parent company of

Delmarva Power 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. Electricity and natural gas Delmarva P ...

and Atlantic City Electric, for $2.2 billion. The purchase was completed in 2002, with Pepco and Conectiv becoming subsidiaries of a newly formed holding company,

Pepco Holdings 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 (better known as "Pepco"). The acquisition was completed on August 1, 200 ...

. In 2003, Pepco's investment subsidiary, Potomac Capital Investment, was transferred to Pepco Holdings. In 2014, Pepco Holdings agreed to be acquired by

for $6.8 billion. The deal faced opposition from Pepco customers and from officials in Washington and Maryland, but was ultimately approved. The acquisition was completed on March 23, 2016, making Pepco a subsidiary of Exelon.

Controversies

Poor reliability and outages

An investigation by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' 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 outage A power outage, also called a blackout, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, a power cut, or a power out is the complete loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an el ...

s. Thousands of people lost power for as many as five days after only 5–8 inches of heavy wet snow. 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 The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is an economic indicator that measures the satisfaction of consumers across the United States, U.S. Economic system, economy. It is produced by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI LLC) base ...

rating. During the

June 2012 North American derecho The June 2012 Mid-Atlantic and Midwest derecho was one of the most destructive fast-moving Severe thunderstorm outbreak, severe thunderstorm complexes in North American history. The progressive derecho tracked across a large section of the Midw ...

, 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.

Pollution

Potomac River Mineral Oil Spill - January 25, 2011

The

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...

, along with local agencies, are responding to a mineral oil spill in the Potomac River near Alexandria, Va. on Monday, January 24. Pepco employees notified the Coast Guard Sunday at 12:40 p.m., reporting approximately 5,000 gallons of mineral oil was believed to have leaked from a transformer at the Pepco substation in Alexandria. It was also reported, that an additional 500 gallons had leaked into the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

. Coast Guard Sector Baltimore’s Incident Management Division personnel arrived on scene at approximately 2 p.m. Sunday and conducted a shoreline assessment of the area. Triumvirate Environmental and

Clean Harbors Clean Harbors, Inc. is an American provider of environmental and industrial services, including hazardous waste disposal for companies, small waste generators and federal, state, provincial and local governments. The company has expanded throug ...

have been hired by Pepco to contain and dispose of the oil. The oil that reached the waterway has been contained by boom. The cause of the spill is under investigation. USCG Sector Baltimore contacted

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

SSC early evening on Tuesday, Jan. 25. USCG reported that mineral oil was not dispersing and requested information from NOAA about toxicity concerns if any, and rate of dispersion. Chris Barker, Robert Jones, and Gary Shigenaka provided support.

Other Air & Water Pollution

The company's

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 The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the primary respo ...

. 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 The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Ch ...

and other areas.

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. 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.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1896 establishments in Washington, D.C. American companies established in 1896 Energy companies established in 1896 Electric power companies of the United States Exelon Privately held companies based in Washington, D.C.