Pepco is funding shareholders instead of infrastructure.

Potomac Electric Power Company spent $120 million on its reliability enhancement program in 2011. But that is just a fraction of the money it could spend if it wants to. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Pepco Holdings Inc. earned $1.768 billion in after-tax net income from 2005 through 2011. Over the same period, the company paid out $1.535 billion in dividends to shareholders. It’s hard for a utility to put money into its infrastructure when 87% of its profits go out the door. Furthermore, the company collected $508 million in federal tax rebates between 2008 and 2010. Pepco can afford to put many millions more into restoring reliability, but it is seeking a rate increase instead.

Pepco exec compensation is skyrocketing despite miserable failure.

Pepco CEO Joseph M. Rigby said he would not accept a salary increase in February 2011. This gesture seemed to indicate that he recognized our outrage about his company’s failures. Wrong: Rigby accepted other non-salary compensation streams which doubled his pay. And he signed a new employment agreement in December that increased his salary, provided that any salary increases can never be revoked, gave him a “retention award” of $1.5 million (ironic since they should be firing him) and a termination benefit of more than three times his salary.

Rigby is not the only executive to cash in. Below are the compensation packages of PHI’s top five executives as reported in its SEC filing.