Pepco has submitted to the Maryland Public Service Commission an application to adjust energy distribution rates and implement a multi-year plan. A public prehearing conference on this matter is scheduled for Wednesday, June 7, 2023, 10 minutes after the conclusion of the Maryland Public Service Commission’s Administrative Meeting, which begins at 10:00 a.m., in the Frank O. Heintz Hearing Room, on the 16th Floor of the William Donald Schaefer Tower, 6 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21202. Any petition to intervene should reference Case No. 9702 and must be filed by June 5, 2023 with Andrew S. Johnston, Executive Secretary, Maryland Public Service Commission at the aforementioned address. Petitions to intervene may also be filed using the Commission’s E-file system. Details of the E-file system are on the Commission’s web page, www.psc.state.md.us (Online Services or Tools).
Pepco is committed to the safety, privacy and security for all of our customers. We believe that our grid modernization efforts, including smart grid and smart metering technologies, help us achieve these goals.
We also understand that you may have some questions or concerns around these technologies. Below you’ll find more detailed information around some commonly asked questions. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us at 1-877-737-2662.
Pepco places the utmost importance on the security and protection of all aspects of its electric system and associated sub systems. In keeping with corporate policy, PHI smart grid systems and components will guard against cyber and physical attacks.
Pepco requires that equipment support Advanced Encryption Standards as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. As Pepco’s smart grid is deployed, the security guiding principles will be implemented and applied as recommended by the manufacturer and industry best practices. For example, PHI will use firewalls, VLANs (virtual local area networks), encryption, and other methods as defined in technology standards to defend, deter, detect and minimize security threats.
This is very unlikely. Each meter is assigned a unique number for each customer location. Data from your location are matched with the meter number assigned to that customer location before being sent to our billing system for processing.
Pepco is committed to ensuring your energy use data are private. Therefore, only the account holder has access to the data. This information cannot be shared with a third party without the written consent of the account holder.
Pepco will retain this information for seven years.
Pepco’s Smart Grid provider, Silver Spring Networks, uses 900 megahertz (MHz) and 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) radios in its smart grid hardware devices – the same FCC-approved frequencies that have been used for many years in devices such as baby monitors, cell phones, remote-controlled toys and medical monitors.
Silver Spring RF emissions are compliant with the levels required by strict federal regulations and permitted by various international recommendations and as such should not cause any interference with wireless routers or cordless telephones. For more information, please refer to our RF Fact sheet.
Most smart grid devices use radio frequency (RF) fields for only a few minutes each day to send signals. Rather than provide continuous output, Pepco’s smart meters are idle most of the time, only turning on periodically to send a brief transmission. An individual meter is idle more than 99 percent of the time.
Over the past decade, there have been hundreds of studies in this area. The smart meters being installed by Pepco use very low-power radio frequency (RF) fields to transmit power usage data. The RF fields used by smart meters are in the same frequency ranges used by cellular and cordless phones, but are at much lower power and typically occur for less than a total of one minute per day.
There is a large body of scientific research on RF fields and health. Federal regulatory agencies have conducted detailed reviews of this scientific research and have not found any reliable basis to conclude that there are health risks related to RF exposures at levels below recognized standards.
Scientific research has been conducted on radio-frequency (RF) fields and health for several decades. Recent research has focused on RF at cellular phone frequencies. This body of research has been reviewed by many public health and regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
None of these organizations has found that the RF signals from smart meters cause or contribute to any adverse health effects. For example, a recent review by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that while some studies suggest a possible relationship to cancer based on prolonged use of cell phones, RF exposures from cell phones cannot be considered an actual cause of cancer or even a probable cause.
IARC also found that there was inadequate scientific evidence of any cancer risk due to RF fields from environmental sources, such as cell phone towers and wireless networks. WHO has further emphasized that “no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.” For detailed information provided by these organizations, visit their websites at:U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationFederal Communications CommissionWorld Health Organization
