The
mission of the District of Columbia Public Service Commission
is to serve the public interest by ensuring that financially healthy
electric, gas and telecommunications companies provide safe, reliable
and quality utility services at reasonable rates for District
of Columbia residential, business and government customers.
We do this by:
- Motivating customer– and results–oriented employees;
- Protecting consumers to ensure public safety, reliability, and
quality services;
- Regulating monopoly services to ensure their rates are just
and reasonable;
- Fostering fair and open competition among service providers;
- Resolving disputes among consumers and service providers; and
- Educating consumers and informing the public.
The Commission has
identified three goals for carrying out its mission:
The Commission contributes to the economic development of the District through the continued regulation of monopoly electric and gas distribution services of PEPCO and WGL respectively, and, where feasible, the introduction of competition in other segments of the electric, gas, and telecommunications industries. Since 1996, the Commission has had statutory authority over new providers of local telecommunications services called “Competitive Local Exchange Carriers” (CLECs). Retail electric competition legislation in 1999 granted the Commission jurisdiction to restructure the electric industry to permit competition for generation and transmission services, including the licensing of alternative electric generation and transmission suppliers (AES). The Commission implemented retail electric choice for electric generation and transmission services in January 2001. The Commission introduced competition for commodity gas through a series of Gas Tariffs beginning in 1999. In 2003, the Commission began licensing alternative commodity gas suppliers (AGS), a process previously undertaken by Washington Gas.
Public Safety
Public Safety is
promoted through the gas pipeline safety and public payphone
programs and the investigation of certain occurrences, such
as manhole explosions and utility outages. A Commission engineer
routinely inspects gas construction projects to ensure compliance
with federal and local gas pipeline safety rules. The Commission
has revised its public payphone rules to streamline the process
for both community participants and payphone providers. The
Commission engaged an engineering consulting firm to provide
technical advice on the causes of the manhole explosion. The
Commission issued a final Order
No. 12735 on May 16, 2003.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction
is encouraged by increasing public access to the Commission
through the consolidation of offices to 1333 H Street, NW, Washington,
DC 20005 and the associated implementation of a number of information
technology projects, such as a new LAN and website. The Commission
also routinely distributes customer satisfaction surveys to
citizens who have sought mediation assistance regarding their
complaints with the utility companies. The Commission is also
promoting customer satisfaction by improving service delivery
through the streamlining of the processing of CLEC applications,
payphone complaints, payphone registration applications, and
tariff and financing approval requests.
