Just when Maryland families thought their electricity bills couldn’t get any worse, Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) is finding new ways to raise them.
As the Baltimore Sun reported this week, BGE wants to add another $9 monthly surcharge to Baltimore City customers’ bills to recover higher fees the city charges for using its underground electrical infrastructure.
BGE President and CEO Tamla Olivier called the city’s increase a “money grab.”
Yet BGE is seeking an increase of its own.
BGE is crying foul over the city’s price increase while asking Maryland regulators to approve a $156 million annual rate hike of its own, including a substantial increase in the profits it’s allowed to earn from customers.
In an October 15 blog post, Maryland PIRG’s Emily Scarr highlighted BGE’s latest request, noting that roughly one out of every four dollars of the proposed increase would go toward higher company profits. PIRG also asked why customers should pay more while dealing with ongoing customer service and safety problems.
As PIRG put it, “We’re paying more and getting less.”
And the numbers tell the story.
BGE wants to increase its authorized return on equity from 9.5% to 10.4%, allowing the monopoly utility to earn a higher regulated return on shareholder investments. According to Maryland PIRG, BGE’s annual profits have nearly quadrupled, from $147 million in 2010 to $578 million in 2025. Meanwhile, if regulators approve its latest request, electric distribution rates will have increased 58% since 2020 and 129% since Exelon acquired BGE in 2012.
Apparently, earning more isn’t enough. BGE wants permission to earn even more.
Maryland’s own Office of People’s Counsel has challenged BGE’s request, arguing that regulators should reject the $156 million increase and instead reduce the utility’s rates by nearly $44 million.
That’s almost a $200 million difference between what BGE wants and what the state’s consumer advocate believes customers should be paying.
And now BGE is demanding accountability from Baltimore City over its proposed fee increase, questioning whether the additional money is justified and how it will be spent.
Those are reasonable questions. But shouldn’t BGE be held to the same standard?
This is the fundamental problem with monopoly utilities. Customers cannot shop around for another company to deliver their electricity. They have no choice but to pay the rates approved by regulators, even as the utility seeks permission to increase its shareholder returns.
BGE argues that higher rates are necessary to maintain reliable service. But Maryland families have watched their bills skyrocket while BGE’s profits have soared.
Different day. Same old tricks.
Whether it’s another rate hike, another surcharge, or another request to increase its regulated profit rate, BGE keeps finding ways to collect more money from customers who have nowhere else to turn.
Maryland families deserve reliable, affordable electricity, not endless rate increases that deliver bigger profits to a monopoly utility and its Wall Street shareholders.
