WASHINGTON – The storm clouds from Hurricane Irene hadn’t even begun to fill the skies over the Washington region back in August when Pepco officials called a news conference at their Bethesda facility.

They pledged a massive effort to bring power back on as fast as they could–they’d already called on hundreds of crews from across the country in anticipation of the storm.

“I want to stress to you that we are looking to apply maximum resources,” declared Pepco CEO Joseph Rigby.

That effort came with a cost. Now, Pepco’s asking ratepayers to help cover the expenses.

The utility has filed a request for a ‘rate adjustment’ of $68 million. According to a press release issued Friday, Pepco is asking the Maryland Public Service Commission to:

…authorize an adjustment in electric delivery rates to bolster the company’s ongoing efforts to maintain safe and reliable service, provide enhanced customer service technology and support the additional resources that were needed to restore service to customers after Hurricane Irene in August.

The statement comes as Pepco waits to see what the Maryland Public Service Commission will rule on its reliability record. The utility spent much of 2011 defending its performance to skeptical lawmakers in Maryland’s General Assembly.

Pepco officials were also called to account in the two counties it serves: Montgomery and Prince George’s. The utility found itself under fire after rate payers seethed over repeated outages, including those that occurred during sunny days — so called ‘blue sky outages..

It’s not clear when the ruling will come down, though one Pepco official said it was expected soon.

Kate Ryan contributed to this report. Follow “>WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All rights reserved.)