Exelon Approved to Absorb Pepco

With Pepco’s now-approved merger with Exelon, Chicago-based Exelon becomes the largest energy utility in the country. In a protracted two-year negotiation that saw an initial rejection of the merger by the District’s Public Service Commission, following massive protests by a coalition of activists called Power DC, a team led by Mayor Muriel Bowser negotiated a settlement agreement that increased investment in the District by the utility from $14 million to $78 million.
Though approval by the PSC was expected, the settlement was rejected in a 2-1 vote. The explanation was that it was not in the public interest, primarily because the four-year rate relief the mayor’s team negotiated applied only to residential customers and not to commercial or governmental customers.

Another deal was made changing four of about 140 terms in the proposal, including the terms of the rate relief, specifically by putting off the allocation until the next rate case. The new proposal lost the support of the mayor and many other officials involved in the process, but was approved nonetheless by the PSC on March 23.