In light of the recent power outages, many residents find themselves blaming Pepco for their various inconveniences and ruthlessly bash Pepco for not fixing the power soon enough.

 According to Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey, Pepco tries to regain consumers’ confidence in the company by attempting to disprove that they are unapproachable and that they do not know what they are doing.

 In a Feb. 7 Washington Post article, Pepco CEO Joseph M. Rigby apologized for service outages in a full-page ad, claiming a commitment to changing and improving the restoration process. Pepco has a new six-point reliability enhancement plan. The six points include enhanced vegetation management, priority feeders, load growth, distribution automation, cable replacement and selective undergrounding. Details of the plan can be found on the Pepco webpage.

 Despite these efforts, some locals find Pepco’s monopoly on the energy market to be unforgivable and damaging.

 “The government needs to take away the fact that [Pepco] has a monopoly and let other companies compete for my dollar,” resource teacher Brian Kruglak said.

 Even students are raising concerns about this issue.

 “Getting [the power] back seems to be a huge struggle,” junior Alec Nussbaum said. “I guess they don’t have enough workers. They should be more prepared for upcoming storms.”

 According to Hainey, Pepco’s biggest challenges are power outages caused by snowstorms or summer windstorms. In these instances, damaged trees are the main culprit of weighing down or breaking power lines.

 “We start prepping for a storm days in advance by calling in contracting crews and bringing them on the clock,” Hainey said.

 Pepco currently has a set restoration process to respond to major power outages. Once the storm passes, the energy company determines the severity of damages in given areas to see where most attention is needed. Life-threatening, public health and safety outages are dealt with first, followed by transmission lines that service thousands of customers, secondary lines, neighborhoods and, finally, individual homes and businesses.

 “We understand the frustration of the customers,” Hainey said. “We’ve heard what everyone had to say, and now we’re addressing it.”

 According to Hainey, Pepco’s efficiency is dependent on how timely downed trees are removed and heavy snowfall is plowed.

 Pepco plans to improve services by engaging as many cities and towns as possible in mutual assistance agreements in which utility crews from the different areas help each other out.

 Pepco also has local crews ready to respond on a minute’s notice in what Pepco calls its “boots on the ground” approach.

 Hainey and other spokespeople are eager to reassure customers and answer specific questions. Pepco has a user-friendly website that includes details on their various approaches to handling power outages. The site also discusses future plans for improving services.