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At least two state legislators stand ready to require utilities to make electric service more reliable in Maryland or pay for failing to meet standards.

Del. Brian J. Feldman (D-Dist. 15) of Potomac has drafted a proposal with the help of Montgomery County Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Potomac that would require the Maryland Public Service Commission to set reliability standards by 2012, and would reduce utilities' profits incrementally for failing to meet those standards.

"The PSC should be very aggressive on this," said Sen. James C. Rosapepe (D-Dist. 21) of College Park, adding Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and state and local lawmakers were right to urge the commission to open an investigation into Pepco's performance, which the panel did with a hearing Tuesday in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, after admitting at the hearing that Pepco customers lose power more often, and for longer periods, than most consumers in the nation or Maryland — and that they have for several years — Pepco executives Thursday rolled out details of a plan to improve reliability.

"We are confident with this plan that we will be at least average or above within five years," William Gausman, Pepco's senior vice president for asset management and planning, told The Gazette in a telephone interview Thursday.

The proposal, which Gausman said was drafted a month ago, would add $115 million to what had been a $141.5 million plan to make Pepco's electricity distribution more reliable.

The proposal to increase that spending by more than 81 percent is slated to go to Pepco's board of directors for approval in December, Gausman said.

The largest chunk of the proposed increase, $75 million, would go toward selective burying of power lines and upgrades to substations. No money for that work is in Pepco's current five-year plan.

The second-largest chunk, $15 million, would go toward trimming trees and vines Pepco says are the biggest reason — along with property owners who don't want their trees cut — for service interruptions, particularly during storms.

And $10 million more would go toward fixing low-performing "feeder" lines from substations. About 1 percent of those Pepco feeders fail at rates that are at least five times Pepco's system average, according to data the utility has filed in reports to the PSC.

Compared with customers of neighboring Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., Pepco customers lost power 61 percent more often in 2009 when there were no major storm outages, according to reports the utilities filed with the commission.

The PSC requires electric utilities to report outage data, including their average number of power outages per customer and their average power outage duration per customer, but it does not set standards or prescribe penalties.

"The original sin was deregulation," Rosapepe said. "It continues to reward utilities for taking their eye off the ball and turns them into financial speculators, like the people who blew up Wall Street.

"I've spent time in countries where they can't count on computers working or food staying refrigerated and they build their lives around it," he said, adding dependability of electric service is key to the country's economic strength.

Rosapepe said he is considering asking Feldman to call a meeting of the Joint Technology Oversight Committee, of which they are co-chairmen.

Feldman said it is important for the parties to know that the legislature might act if the problem is not resolved.

"If the PSC, who has authority, shows a willingness to take action on its own, it may not require a legislative response," Feldman said.

Sen. Robert J. Garagiola (D-Dist. 15) of Germantown said he is still gathering information to decide whether legislation is needed.

"There's certainly a lot of chest-thumping going on right now," Garagiola said. "My hope is that the PSC will look at it."