On May 20, both DC Rising Tide and DCsun, a soloar collective, protested at PEPCO's annual AGM meeting, demanding that PEPCO support solar power as an alternative to coal. Two protesters hold stock in PEPCO, and entered the meeting to demand action on a shareholder resolution supporting rooftop solar installations.

PEPCO went so far as to go to the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid a vote on the shareholder resolution, even though local solar power would save them money by providing some of that extra hot day peak capacity they are screaming for. They don't want solar, but they DO want new power lines to coal plants to be built in areas convenient to coal mines, including mountaintop removal mines.

DCSUN has found that PEPCO is going out of their way to obstruct anyone combining a rooftop solar installation with power from the grid. They will pay only 2 cents per kwh, then deduct trasnsmission fees. Mirant probably gets paid a hell of a lot more than 2 cents per kwh for power from mountaintop removal coal.

"Smart meters" capable of handling the 2-way power flow are hard to get, PEPCO has only one person providing customer service for such installations-and there are fears that PEPCO will sell time of use data from smart meters to advertisers. Telemarketers and collection agencies would be especially interested in electrical use data that would indicate when people are home.