Council hearing probes Pepco outages, cites public-safety failures and communication gaps

Council Member Brooke Pinto, chair of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, opened an Oct. 23 public hearing to examine three major 2025 power disruptions and their public-safety consequences. "When the lights go out, it is not just an inconvenience. It is a public safety issue," Pinto told witnesses and residents, noting impacts to seniors, residents dependent on medical equipment and local businesses.

The hearing combined testimony from affected residents and advisory neighborhood commissioners with sworn statements from Pepco and the District’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA). Pecked with specific requests, Pinto asked Pepco for a list of master-metered residential buildings, its policy and recent totals for reimbursement of customer damages, and its annual preventative-maintenance spending. HSEMA Director Clint Osborne said HSEMA focuses on assessing community impacts and coordinating government services, while noting that many operational alert thresholds are driven by the utility’s metering system rather than raw headcount.

Pinto closed the hearing by listing agreed follow-ups, including Pepco sharing master-meter data and its claims policy, and a joint review of communication and generator-prioritization protocols. The committee said it will use those materials to pursue clearer, durable changes so residents are notified and supported more quickly in future outages.