Photo by nevermindtheend.

This post has been updated with additional comments.

Three months after the Public Service Commission approved a merger with Chicago-based Exelon, Pepco filed a request today to hike rates, which would affect around 280,000 customers.

Pepco says the proposed 5.25 percent increase would “cover the costs of reliability and infrastructure upgrades that have reduced the number and length of power outages, while delivering improved service.” It is the first time in three years (during which the merger process was under way) that they have requested to raise rates in the District. Earlier this year, Pepco also filed to increase rates by 10 percent in Maryland.

D.C. negotiated with the companies for $25.6 million to offset rate increases for residents, money that will ultimately be controlled by the Public Service Commission after back-and-forth over who would allocate the funds.

[The Public Service Commission] should limit the Pepco/Exelon request to the mere requirements of the law. And they must apply the $25.4 million that Mayor Bowser negotiated, and they redirected, toward shielding D.C. residential ratepayers from any increase for 3 years,” Christina Harper, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement. “To do otherwise would be to the detriment of D.C. residents.”

If the increase is approved, it would bring $85.5 million to Pepco—with an average increase of $4.36 a month for residential customers. And if the PSC approves the credit that Pepco proposed, residential customers wouldn’t see the rate increase until January of 2019. Upon completion of the merger, the company also gave statement credits of $54.59 to District residents.

“They put a couple of pennies in front of us, but meanwhile they’re reaching deep into our pockets,” merger opponent Councilmember Mary Cheh told DCist after the PSC gave approval to the merger. “The money put aside will be eaten up in the first rate increase.”

Meanwhile the Office of the People’s Counsel promises a “vigorous analysis” of what they said is the largest rate increase in decades. “OPC will be vigilant in examining this monumental filing to ensure that any rate increase is based only on the expenses necessary to keep the lights on and not those associated with Exelon’s lengthy journey to merge with Pepco,” People’s Counsel Sandra Mattavous-Frye said in a statement, adding that her office has assembled a team to monitor the merger agreement.

Pepco’s regional president, Donna Cooper, touted costly infrastructure upgrades that have improved service, saying that customers experienced 42 percent fewer power outages last year than in 2011, and promised to work with customers to blunt the impact of the increase. “We realize that a rate increase has a direct impact to our customers and so we will continue to work with our customers to identify ways to reduce their energy usage and manage their bills,” Cooper said in a statement.

But in a joint release, Cheh and At-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman slammed the proposed rate hike: “No sooner does the ink dry on the merger then Pepco issues a request for District residents to pay the largest single rate increase in decades … We can only hope that the Public Service Commission will push back against this exorbitant request and limit it to the barest increase it can justify.”

The approval process can last up to a year.