The Exelon Corporation and Pepco Holdings merger received approval from the District of Columbia Public Service Commission recently.
On March 23, public service commissioners Joanne Doddy Fort and Willie L. Phillips voted to support the merger, while the chairman, Betty Ann Kane, opposed it. The merger is valued at $6.8 billion and is now official with Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Justice Department on board. The merger will make Exelon the largest energy utility in the mid-Atlantic region.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), who opposed the merger in August 2015, but supported an October 2015 settlement agreement with District government officials that was rejected by the commission earlier this year, issued a short statement of disapproval on the final agreement.
“It appears the Public Service Commission favors government and commercial ratepayers over D.C. residents,” the mayor said. “Instead of a three-year rate increase reprieve we negotiated, it appears that D.C. residents will be hit with a rate increase as soon as this summer.”
Commissioners Fort and Phillips liked the benefits that Exelon offered that included a $72.8 million Customer Investment Fund, including $25.6 million in rate base credits; $11.25 million in funds for energy efficiency and energy conservation programs, especially for low-income residents and $21.55 million to promote the District’s sustainability agenda through pilot projects to modernize the electric grid to accommodate more distributed energy resources.
D.C. Council members Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) and Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) tweeted their general disapproval of the commission’s decision to approve the merger.
A Pepco spokesperson said, in a statement, that the company “must carefully review the commission’s order.”
“Once we have had the chance to do so, we will have more to say about what it means and our next steps,” the statement said.