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In stark contrast to a hearing Monday in Montgomery County that brought out hundreds of residents with complaints about Pepco power outages, a group of about 40 residents and elected officials came out to a hearing in Prince George's County on Thursday, with mixed reviews for the utility company.

"We have to be patient and understanding," said county resident Thurman Jones, one of several who praised the company at the meeting at Prince George's County Community College in Largo. "Some things are out of their control."

The hearings by the Maryland Public Service Commission, which regulates public utility companies, were held in response to a series of prolonged power outages suffered by Pepco customers this summer after severe thunderstorms. The hearing Monday in Rockville lasted for six hours as 350 lawmakers and residents demanded better regulation of utility companies and explanations for the extended outages.

The hearings were held to investigate complaints about Pepco outages, which became a focal point after about 68,000 Prince George's County customers and more than 200,000 Montgomery County customers lost power — some for several days — after storms in July and early August.

The Largo meeting lasted 95 minutes, with residents spending as much time praising the utility as they did making complaints.

"In 2003, we had problems, but there was no meeting because Montgomery County wasn't having a problem," said Belinda Queen of Capitol Heights. "I'm offended by that."

Queen and some other residents at the meeting said they are not worried about the recent problems with the utility based on their past track record. They said Pepco has improved power service after their complaints over the years.

"I would never have thought I would be here praising Pepco," said Camilla Gaines, who said the frequent power outages she dealt with in 2006 have been rare this year. "But I'm happy to say that they were responsive."

John Holt, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers union, blamed Pepco's problems on cutbacks of work crews in favor of outside contractors.

"You can just sit and watch the news reports and look behind the people speaking. You can count the number of Pepco trucks on one hand," Holt told the PSC members. "There just aren't enough of us."

Most residents came out to ask questions about their Pepco bills and complain about customer service. Others blamed overgrown trees that knocked over power lines for the outages.

"It's the real problem here," said Ken Michael, president and owner of The Michael Cos. development company. "The county, almost every municipality, requires us to plant trees at every right of way. Unfortunately, those just happen to lie right under the power lines."

Michael said the state needs to stop requiring trees be planted near power lines and to stop fining companies that trim back trees to avoid outages.

"Undergrounding won't work," Michael said, referring to the possibility of requiring buried power lines instead of running them above ground.

Michael's assessment drew a rebuke from state Sen. James Rosapepe (D-Dist. 21) of College Park, who blamed the state's deregulation of electricity in the 1990s for the current utility problems.

"No offense to Mr. Michael, but the public of Maryland is never going to accept cutting down trees as the answer," he said. "Trees do more for energy conservation than the electric companies."

Rosapepe said undergrounding utilities has been done successfully in Europe, which leaves power lines secure from weather complications and would boost the economy.

"I don't buy the argument that it can't be done," he said. "It's a domestic job. You can't outsource these jobs. People would be digging the holes to bury the wires."

Rosapepe echoed calls from the Montgomery County meeting to create a "power failure rebate" to compensate people who lose work hours and food to prolonged power outages.

"It's very fair, and it creates an incentive for the utility to keep the lights on," he said.

"It'll never happen," Michael said from the audience.

Pepco officials have promised to spend $256 million on improving service.

dvalentine@gazette.net