“looks like Chik Fil A is lit up and nothing else for blocks and blocks” Photo by Justin C

Looks like most folks are back in action as of 9am. Last night we got tons of reports from Capitol Hill, Hill East, H Street, NE, Kingman Park and Trinidad. Read More

Thanks to all who messaged around 10:45pm:

“there was just a manhole cover that exploded off of S st NW between 14th and 15th

Fire fighters are here

some people are without power

the north half of the block lost power”

The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.

Photo by David McAuley

At its regularly-scheduled meeting September 4, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw voted to table a decision on a proposed new electricity substation at K and First Streets NW, in Mount Vernon Square. The vote took place after PEPCO representatives and local residents argued over whether electromagnetic radiation from the plant will pose a danger to the community.

The ANC is involved because PEPCO must get zoning relief in order to construct the substation. The footprint, height, and setback of the building are within what PEPCO may build without seeking zoning relief, but the current plans do not include as many spaces for cars and bicycles as required, nor do the plans meet the requirements for a trash room. However, since the building will be mostly “unmanned”, it was argued, normal building requirements are not relevant in these categories.

A team from PEPCO, led by Vice President for Government and External Affairs Mark Battle, presented first.

“A substation is not a power plant,” Battle said.

Battle also said there will soon not be enough capacity from existing substations, given development in the Mount Vernon Square area. Read More

“Dear PoPville,

For the second time in a week we have widespread power outage issues in the triangle east of 2nd St NE, South of Florida Ave and north of the H Street. On the Pepco outage map it looks like approximately 1,300 customers are without power. Last week’s outage(s) map looked like a “Whac-A-Mole” game, one outage would get fixed and multiple smaller ones would pop up. Read More

“Dear PoPville,

You’ve written on similar many times in the past but just a head’s up and a general query if they have hit up any others, that some sort of iteration of the PEPCO scam may be afoot. A young woman with a Russian/Eastern European accent was going door to door in Michigan Park this evening.

She showed up around 6:30 saying that people in the neighborhood had reported excessive charges to their PEPCO bills and that they were out to look into it. She said she was from some company (I couldn’t clearly understand her, but it wasn’t Pepco) carried an iPad and had a lanyard of a non-Pepco company and an ID badge facing the wrong way so it was just a blank white badge.

She said she wanted to inspect my bill to insure I hadn’t been needlessly impacted. Sensing something fishy, in an attempt to shoo her off, I said I have paperless billing so don’t have anything handy. She said, that’s okay, if you can login to your account I can show you. Trying to shoo her off one more time as I was trying to get my toddler to eat and ready for bed, I said my computer was upstairs and I’m not. I then turned it back on her and said “I’ll take a look and call you if I have problems. I should call Pepco, right?” She replied with “No, I am the agent for this neighborhood and I will be in the neighborhood til 8pm, call me, Leena.” She gave me a non-202 number and eventually went next door. I later learned the area code was for northern New Jersey.”

“Dear PoPville,

I thought you would like to see the tree that’s still being suspended by power lines on the corner of Hamilton St. NW and North Capitol. Power went out on the lower half of the block (closer to New Hampshire Ave) Friday sometime between 8-10am. A crane, Pepco and some tree experts showed up Saturday afternoon to inspect the situation, with the only progress being that they cut the power on the rest of the block. Tree guys and Pepco said they didn’t know what to do, and that the specific power line the tree landed on was an intersection of power down N. Capitol. They said they hope to have it fixed by Wednesday (!!!) but they’re not sure. Read More

New Jersey and Morgan St, NW photo by Adam L.

Alert DC reports:

“PEPCO is now reporting power outages throughout the District of Columbia affecting 42,880 customers at this time. To report downed power lines and outages, call 1-877-737-2662.”

Piney Branch & Blair Rd NW photo by Stephen

From Alert DC just before noon:

“DC Water reports a water outage in the area of U St NW between 17th St and Florida St NW affecting 40 homes. Estimated time of restoration is 10-12 hours. Please take all needed precautions.”

and

“Pepco reports a power outage in the Navy Yard and Southwest Waterfront neighborhoods affecting approximately 1240 customers. Estimated time of restoration is 8 pm. Please take all needed precautions.”

Update: 1:15pm

“Pepco reports a power outage in the Mount Vernon Square & Logan Circle/ Shaw neighborhoods affecting approximately 1600 customers. At this time, a restoration time is pending assessment.”

I’ve no love for Pepco but this is a fantastic font. From an F Street transom:

Ed. Note: hahaha

“Dear PoPville,

I was wondering if folks could help me out with a question I have. I was looking at long-term trends on my PEPCO bill to see what my household could be doing better and found this interesting pie chart in my account info.

Besides the obvious takeaway that we should turn down the heat on our house’s water heater, I was wondering what the heck the pool charges might be referring to. We live in a Columbia Heights row house. Definitely no pool that we know of. Anyone have any ideas so we can do better by the environment and for our bill? Thanks!”