Posted on 02/21/25
| News Source: WBAL
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 21, 2025 - Baltimore City Council’s Legislative Investigations Committee grilled Baltimore Gas and Electric representatives Thursday night about high-cost energy bills in recent months.
City Council President Zeke Cohen said they’re calling on BGE to provide meaningful rate relief and on the Public Service Commission to end the multi-year rate pilot and ensure the cancellation of BGE’s rate increase plan.
In 2023, the Public Service Commission approved $408 million in rate increases from 2024-2026, which Cohen said they warned against.
“We’ve heard the pain in every corner of our great city. We’ve heard it from families with young children who got shut-off notices on the coldest day of the year. We’ve heard it from local restaurant owners who are forced to choose between covering a massive BGE bill or investing in their workers and their businesses. We’ve heard it from our seniors who are forced to choose between keeping the lights on or paying for essential medications,” Cohen said.
People’s Counsel David Lapp dove deeper into the rising costs.
“These rate-making mechanisms are highly beneficial to Exelon investors, but they are inflicting untold harm on customers,” Lapp said. “Our office is being flooded with calls from customers upset about their bills and unable to pay them.”
Lapp adds utility shut-offs hit record numbers in 2023, declined slightly in 2024, but are expected to rise again this year.
Executive representatives from BGE testified they are prioritizing efficiency and safety and are currently working to replace aging infrastructure. Vice President of Regulatory Policy and Strategy Mark Case argued they have to consider returns on investment.
“Bottom line, if a utility conducts a capital project, executes it appropriately, the work is deemed and found to be prudent, the utility may recover those dollars over time and a return on its investment that is established by the commission,” Case said. “That’s rate-making 101.”
Cohen also questioned BGE’s financial incentives.
“From what I’m hearing from you, there is an incentive to build out infrastructure, but you don’t have that same financial incentive to improve staffing, which would then decrease the amount of time it takes to get the power back on in an outage,” Cohen said.
BGE representatives spoke with reporters ahead of the meeting, standing by claims that higher-than-usual usage led to skyrocketing bills.
“We certainly believe that Maryland is going to need to build more power generation facilities in order to meet the load,” Case said. “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to call it the beginning of a supply crisis.”
The City Council can only ask the PSC to end the multi-year rate plan. The PSC chair is scheduled to meet with Cohen next month.