One in Five BGE Customers Is Behind on Utility Bills. Maryland’s Affordability Problem Is Getting Harder to Ignore.

By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews

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Maryland’s energy affordability problem is showing up in a number that should get everyone’s attention:

300,000 BGE customers were behind on their utility bills in June.

That is up from roughly 290,000 in March and represents about 19% of BGE’s approximately 1.6 million customer accounts.

In other words, nearly one in five BGE customers is delinquent. And this is happening while BGE is seeking approval for another electric rate increase next year.

The numbers come from data reported to the Maryland Public Service Commission. They show that the problem is not isolated to a small group of households falling temporarily behind. It is becoming a broad affordability issue affecting hundreds of thousands of Marylanders.

The Bill Is Bigger Than BGE

It is also important to understand where the money on an electric bill actually goes. According to BGE, roughly 28 cents of every residential electric bill dollar goes toward BGE delivery costs, and about 2 cents represents company profit. The remaining 70 cents is largely outside BGE’s direct control:

• About 64 cents goes toward PJM-related electricity supply costs.
• Roughly 6 cents comes from state-imposed items and other charges.

That means simply blaming BGE misses part of the story.

Maryland consumers are getting hit by a combination of higher generation costs, transmission expenses, state energy policies, infrastructure spending, and utility delivery charges. But customers do not care which line item caused the increase when the bill arrives. They just know they have to pay it.

Another Rate Increase?

BGE is now seeking approval to raise electric rates again in 2027. That request may have legitimate infrastructure and reliability arguments behind it, but regulators should be looking very closely at the timing.

When 300,000 customers are already behind, the question cannot simply be whether another increase is technically justified. The question has to be whether Marylanders can actually afford it.

State leaders have spent years talking about the energy transition, clean-energy goals and the future of the electric grid. Those conversations matter. But so does the family deciding whether to pay the electric bill, buy groceries or cover the rent.

Maryland Has an Affordability Problem

The state can debate utilities, PJM, renewable mandates, transmission projects, and regulatory policy all it wants. The bottom line is much simpler:

If nearly one-fifth of a major Maryland utility’s customers cannot stay current on their bills, something is not working.

Marylanders do not need cheaper energy someday.

They need affordable, reliable energy now.

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