Pepco located and, on January 12, repaired a local power line issue that caused weeks of electrical abnormalities reported by Greenbelt residents beginning in December 2025.
The City of Greenbelt experienced various electrical disturbances, including the loss of a controller at the Community Center, which regulates the heat in the building. There were also elevator issues at Charlestowne North that resulted in people trapped on January 10. At the Co-op Supermarket a battery back-up was “fried” during the height of the rolling fluctuations, reported General Manager Dan Gillotte. They also experienced several instances of dimming lights, but all their critical systems have battery back-up, explained Gillotte, so they could continue functioning. However, power fluctuations aren’t good for sensitive electronics, he noted. Across the city others reported flickering lights and damaged LED bulbs, and raised concerns about the stability and safety of the power lines.
Mary Halbe said she first noticed the issue sometime before Christmas, with several incidents occurring during the holiday period. Halbe lives in a Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) unit, where multiple homes share electrical infrastructure, increasing her concerns that the problem might extend beyond a single residence.
“They were happening pretty frequently, and they killed a few of my LED light bulbs, which were fairly new,” she told the News Review. Halbe’s power never went completely out but repeatedly dipped and surged, causing lights to dim and brighten. “The lights would flicker and go brown, like the power wouldn’t go all the way out,” she said. “And then sometimes they get really bright, and then they go brown again.”
She estimated that the disturbances occurred daily or every few days from December into January. “These ongoing brownouts and little power surges, it just seemed to be hitting a wide swath of people.”
A Laurel Hill resident with a Ting electrical sensor recorded numerous brownouts and power surges. The recordings show December 23 had the most brownout alerts and January 10 was the latest alert.
According to Pepco, the disturbances were not brownouts but the result of an infrastructure problem.
“Some customers may have noticed brief instances of light flickering earlier this month, which was caused by a minor issue on a local power line,” said Rodney Wilson, Pepco’s senior communications specialist. “Our crews mobilized quickly to identify the source and completed repairs in early January.”
“There have been no brownouts in the Greenbelt or Riverdale communities,” said Wilson. Since the repairs were made, “the system has been operating normally with no related issues reported.”
Pepco said it continues to monitor the local grid. Greenbelt City Manager Josué Salmerón is coordinating with the utility company as the city follows the situation.
Laura Charleston is a University of Maryland student in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning with the Greenbelt News Review.
