This year, Maryland lawmakers passed a bill that will actually put money back in the hands of electric customers. The math is simple. Utilities like Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) have been collecting a surcharge for participating in PJM, the regional power grid. That participation was once voluntary, and the surcharge was designed as an incentive. Then the General Assembly made participation mandatory. The incentive payment should have ended the moment the law went into effect. Instead, Maryland families continue to foot the bill, at an estimated $20 million annually statewide, because BGE won’t stop collecting the surcharge.
In response, the Public Service Commission (PSC), the Office of People’s Counsel, and the Maryland Energy Administration jointly asked federal regulators to eliminate the surcharge. PSC Chair Kumar Barve put it plainly: “There’s no reason to keep paying an incentive for something the law now requires”.
BGE had a chance to make this easy. The OPC asked Maryland utilities back in June to voluntarily file with FERC and give up the surcharge without a fight. House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk said she expected utilities to be “willing partners” in carrying out both the letter and the spirit of the new Utility RELIEF Act. Instead, BGE dismissed the request and pointed fingers. Instead of being a willing partner with state leaders trying to save families money, BGE and its parent company Exelon are fighting to hold on to every dollar of profit they can.
Maryland is not the first state to make this change. Ohio and California went through the same process, and in both states, utilities dragged the matter into federal court rather than give up the money voluntarily, delaying relief for customers for years. Two separate federal appeals courts, the 6th Circuit and the 9th Circuit, ruled against the utilities both times. If BGE follows the same playbook here, Maryland ratepayers could be stuck with a legal fight costing “multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars,” according to People’s Counsel David Lapp. That’s money that ultimately comes from the same ratepayers BGE is trying to keep overcharging. All so BGE can hang onto $20 million a year in payments it has no legal right to once PJM participation became mandatory.
And BGE isn’t just digging in on the surcharge. On the very same day the state agencies filed their FERC complaint, BGE announced an $8-a-month rate hike proposal for residential customers. The company says the increase is necessary because it postponed infrastructure work to keep costs down for consumers this year. Set aside whether that justification holds up; the timing alone tells us where BGE’s priorities are. The same week Maryland regulators attempted to get back money that shouldn’t be in BGE’s pocket, BGE is asking to grab more of it.
Lapp said he’d hoped public pressure, the simple optics of a utility fighting to protect profits after months of public anger over rates, might be enough to get BGE to do the right thing without a court battle. So far, that hope hasn’t translated into action. The company continues to say it is “reviewing” the request instead of committing to stop collecting a surcharge the law no longer justifies.
Maryland residents have spent this year watching their electric bills climb along with utility profits. The Utility RELIEF Act was meant to signal that the state was willing to fight for ratepayers rather than just utility shareholders. BGE has an easy, low-cost way to show good faith: file voluntarily, stop collecting a surcharge the law no longer justifies, and put the $20 million back in customers’ pockets, not in a multi-year legal battle Maryland taxpayers will have to fund.
