Governor Wes Moore to announce initiative to lower energy costs in Maryland
Amid rising energy costs, Maryland Governor Wes Moore plans to announce a new initiative to lower energy costs Thursday morning.
On Jan. 1, Baltimore Gas and Electric raised rates, increasing the average residential gas bill by 9% and the electric bill by 7%.
The cost of energy in Maryland continued to rise
BGE customers and state leaders publicly challenged the increases, which were a part of the company's planned multi-year utility rate hikes.
In February, the Baltimore City Council called on state regulators to stop the increases, which totaled $602 million over the course of three years. BGE said the increase was necessary to cover the cost of continued investments in gas and electric distribution systems.
In March, City Council President Zeke Cohen led a community walk, going door to door to collect signatures on a petition that asked the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) to stop the hikes.
Some customers experienced price hikes larger than the stated increase rates, with some residents reporting that their winter bills climbed by more than $200.
In response to the hikes, lawmakers passed a bill, the Next Generation Energy Act, which aims to reduce costs by directing the Public Service Commission to reject multi-year rate hikes that don't demonstrate customer benefit, and prohibiting utilities from charging ratepayers for certain expenses like trade association memberships and private planes.
Why have energy costs increased?
BGE said those additional increases seen by consumers were a result of an increase in the price of natural gas and increased gas usage.
Then again on June 1, BGE's electricity cost to consumers rose by $16 monthly, which the company said was due to an unexpected spike in capacity auction prices and the Talen Energy reliability-must-run (RMR) fee.
When BGE announced the increase, the Maryland General Assembly wrote a letter urging federal legislators to stop the increase.
They blamed PJM Interconnection, the region's power grid operator, for miscalculating the supply and demand for electricity during the capacity market auction, a competitive bidding process where power companies promise to make their electricity generation available in the future.
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