Utilities

I don't understand why utilities are asking for or would be granted the right to charge ratepayers to fund capital improvements like replacing aging infrastructure ("Utility surcharge bill advances in Senate," Feb. 6). Haven't we ratepayers been paying for these depreciating assets all along over their lifetimes? Isn't it the responsibility of the owners (stockholders, etc.) to provide capital? Why should ratepayers be "taxed" to cover costs that are rightly the responsibility of owners?

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. asked Friday for another rate increase, three months after winning approval for higher charges, and company officials said they expect to seek more in the future. It's the third time in as many years that BGE has requested higher distribution rates. If approved, the typical residential customer getting both electricity and gas would pay about $72 more a year for distribution. Company officials said they expect to ask for frequent rate increases as they seek reimbursement for more aggressive tree-trimming, infrastructure upgrades and other work aimed at improving service.

Those who want to witness the benefits of underground electrical lines on a dedicated power grid need only drive down Route 29 into Howard County and pull off into Columbia. James Rouse, the visionary planner of Columbia, set out to design a modern city, which anticipated over 100,000 residents. In doing so, all aspects of city life were taken into consideration. At the top of his list must have been buried utilities. Thank God for his insight. Today, Columbia is for most the part (although some neighborhoods share an above-ground grid)

The state Public Utilities Commission will schedule a formal hearing on whether to make Uber Technologies, which lets Baltimore customers hail a town car by smart phone, abide by regulations that govern taxi companies. The app-driven startup company Uber entered the Baltimore market in January, raising the ire of local cab companies that said it was skirting state regulations. Century-old Yellow Cab filed a challenge with the commission, contending that Uber should not be allowed to operate here until it complies with the same safety and insurance regulations as traditional taxi and limo companies.

Executives from Maryland's two largest electric utilities defended the speed of their response to thousands of power outages caused by January's severe winter storm as they appeared before state regulators Thursday. Joseph Rigby, chairman and CEO of Pepco Holdings Inc., told the Maryland Public Service Commission about the utility's reliability enhancement plan that is expected to cost more than $250 million over five years. The utility took about five days to restore power to more than 180,000 Maryland customers in January.

Maryland energy regulators on Thursday considered proposed regulations that would set reliability standards for the state's utilities. The proposed standards would reduce the average length of outages statewide by 90 minutes and the frequency of outages by 24 percent by the end of 2015. They also would set benchmarks for tree trimming and telephone call response times, as well as deadlines for restoring power during normal and inclement weather. The Maryland Public Service Commission would have the authority to impose fines if utilities failed to meet the standards.

We have read recently about outrage from customers and politicians regarding slow restoration of power to homes after bad weather. We have to say that our experience this week has been quite different. A tree fell across our power lines last Friday afternoon. By that night, Baltimore Gas and Electric and Baltimore County had cleared the street and made the power lines safe. The next day, the four downed poles were replaced. Twelve hours later, the power was restored. The next day, the phone and cable companies restored service.

Despite the best efforts of more than 1,100 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. workers, some of whom trudged through 3-foot drifts and climbed poles in the driving snow, about 20,000 residents of the region remained without power Saturday night. During the storm, nearly 180,000 Maryland homes and businesses were without power, most of them in Montgomery County. Utility company representatives said most of the outages were caused by tree branches breaking under the weight of heavy snow and bringing down lines.

Four major electricity providers defended the safety of "smart meters" Tuesday at a hearing called by the Maryland Public Service Commission after commissioners read reports of similar meters overheating and catching fire in Southeastern Pennsylvania. "We've had five cases so far where the temperature threshold was exceeded," said Michael Butts, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s director of business transformation. He said BGE has installed 65,000 of the advanced meters. In all five cases, the overheating was detected by sensors in the meters and BGE was alerted, he said.

Maryland energy regulators have ordered the state's utilities to provide better and more up-to-date information on prices for consumers shopping for electricity. The decision issued Thursday is intended to improve "price to compare" information for standard utility service that appears on customer bills. Instead of providing apples-to-apples comparisons for consumers, the Maryland Public Service Commission wrote in its order that the "price to compare" information has been "confusing, can be misleading and will often be dated."

What do you think of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and its parent, Exelon Corp.? Some companies survey customers to find out. Results are mixed. J.D. Power and Associates' most recent survey -- for 2012 -- shows BGE with a roughly average score for large utilities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, but substantially below average overall. BGE's 598 score for customer satisfaction among electric residential customers, on a 1,000-point scale, ranked it below 109 of the 126 utilities the marketing-information firm surveyed.

SEATTLE - Playing against the Orioles has to be viewed as just another game, Seattle Mariners infielder Robert Andino said before the teams' three-game series at Safeco Field kicked off. And then, Monday night, Andino went out and played a key role in beating his old team - hitting an RBI single to give the Mariners a lead they never lost and handling nine balls for outs while starting at second base in Seattle's 6-2 victory. Make no mistake: Andino, whom the Orioles traded to the Mariners this offseason for minor league outfielder Trayvon Robinson, wanted to remind his former organization what it gave up. But you'll never hear him say that.

A portion of Broening Highway will be closed this weekend for utility construction work and motorists are urged to use alternate routes, the city transportation department said. The closure to through traffic will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, between Holabird Avenue and Dunhill Road with detours in effect. The roadway will reopen at 5 a.m. Monday. Local traffic will be allowed access to area businesses. The $27.1 million project, which will conclude in fall 2014, includes new lighting and upgraded traffic signals, repaving and reconfiguring the Keith Avenue ramp to accommodate two-way traffic.

An underground electrical fire was reported beneath the Sheraton City Center hotel Wednesday morning, but city emergency officials said it posed no danger to hotel guests. Half a dozen fire vehicles and a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. truck surrounded the entrance to the hotel about 9:30 a.m, blocking several lanes of traffic in the 100 block of W. Fayette St. downtown. Hotel staff said guests had not been evacuated and were not affected. The Baltimore Mayor's Office of Emergency Management said via Twitter about 9:40 a.m. that firefighters were awaiting the power to be shut off before they could extinguish the fire.

Concerns about utility smart meters are frequently dismissed as tinfoil-hat paranoia. But it's not so easy to dismiss Jonathan Libber. The Baltimore man delivers his arguments against the wireless devices in the calm manner of an attorney. He is, in fact, an attorney - retired from the Environmental Protection Agency, a point he notes when he reminds people of the country's spotty record of figuring out environmental hazards before they're widespread. As the force behind Maryland's smart-meter opposition, Libber is spending the early part of retirement in a way he'd never envisioned.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. said Monday that it will hand out 9,000 free trees to customers - first come, first served - to help cut down on energy use. BGE said it has earmarked $300,000 for its new Energy-Saving Trees Program, which is receiving technical support from the Arbor Day Foundation and Davey Institute. BGE said the funds are a donation and do not come from customer fees. Customers can request up to two free trees at http://www.arborday.org/BGE . They must call Miss Utility at 811 before planting, to avoid damaging underground utility infrastructure.

Maryland power companies and some of their biggest customers say the state's economy has a lot to gain from more competition in the electricity business.But almost all sides want the Public Service Commission to move very cautiously if it deregulates power prices, and most say Maryland should not go it alone but instead should join neighboring states in a regional deregulation plan."Let others blaze trails. There are bound to be constructive lessons to be learned from their mistakes," the Potomac Edison Co. urged in a 117-page paper that added up to an essay on the need for caution in changing familiar arrangements that have provided Marylanders with electric power for decades.

Federal regulators approved a plan yesterday that would set up a common operating system to handle electricity transactions between a group of mid-Atlantic utilities.The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval will allow the utilities -- including Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. -- to establish an independent system operator beginning Jan. 1.But in approving the plan for the group known as the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, FERC ordered that the companies have no financial interest in the operator.

A driver on an Anne Arundel County road Wednesday evening lost control of his vehicle and struck a utility pole, leaving him and a female passenger with critical injuries at Maryland Shock Trauma, according to Anne Arundel police. A statement released by police officials Thursday said that at about 11:07 p.m. Wednesday, county police and fire departments responding to the area of Hammonds Ferry Road and Evelyn Road in Linthicum found a 1998 Chevrolet Corvette against a utility pole.

Legislators heard an outpouring of complaints Thursday about smart meters from Maryland utility customers who want to be allowed to opt out without charge. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other Maryland utilities are installing the meters — which send wireless data about energy use and allow the companies to pinpoint outages — as part of a nationwide push to jettison analog meters that require in-person reading. Utilities say the new technology will reduce costs and enable customers to better manage their energy use. But here and elsewhere, the shift has kicked off a countermovement of smart-meter foes with concerns about health effects, privacy, the cost of installation and other issues.