While Maryland consumers have seen marked increases to their utility bills in past months, residents are getting some support from the General Assembly and Gov. Wes Moore, who signed multiple bills into law to improve the state’s energy independence and bring relief to consumers.
“I think we need to broaden our view of what clean energy actually is and how it correlates to the needs of our people,” said Moore in a statement.
The Next Generation Energy Act, an omnibus bill, seeks to offer affordable rates to Marylanders, limit the ways that utility companies can spend revenues generated from ratepayers, and aims to increase in-state power generation and battery storage.
“We can be a clean energy state while at the same time focusing on affordability for ratepayers — I don’t think those have to be conflicting ideas,” the governor continued. “I just think we have to have the right infrastructure to be able to make those individualized things happen.”
While these laws will help limit future increases, some Marylanders will see higher utility bills as soon as this month.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D- District 46) called the package of energy bills the “the most substantive energy affordability package that Maryland has seen in several decades.”
Ferguson cited the closing of older coal and gas-powered facilities has outpaced the creation of new power generation sources in Maryland.
Some environmentalists and conservations are worried this legislation could create a new natural gas plant in Maryland, but amendments and outreach from organizations and concerned citizens helped shape the bill in a more environmentally-conscious direction.
“We’re proud of state lawmakers for not allowing industry lobbyists to drag the ‘next generation’ of Maryland energy backwards to dirty, dangerous methane gas,” said Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund Maryland Director Brittany Baker.
The CCAN director noted the final iteration of the legislation addressed some of the initial concerns regarding state investment into fossil fuels.
“The bill that just passed is significantly improved from the version first introduced,” she continued. “During this session, legislators revealed the true causes of higher Maryland utility bills – including mismanagement from our regional grid operator, utilities overcharging ratepayers, and uncertainty about new investment in methane gas.”
Cost Setting Statewide: PJM and BGE
While in-state generation and improved battery storage are improvements that can potentially limit utility prices increases for Marylanders, much of the cost-setting is done by the PJM, the regional power grid that Maryland, D.C., and Virginia share with 11 other states.
Recent studies have shown that PJM’s current pace of developing new power generation could end up raising utility rates by 60% in the next decade, particularly if Maryland remains reliant on energy from other states.
“Electricity customers in the PJM region (which spans all or parts of 13 Mid-Atlantic states and Washington, D.C.) are facing a looming cost crisis stemming from two major issues: worsening barriers to building and connecting new generation resources needed to supply the electric grid, and unprecedented increases in projected electricity demand,” read a report on regional electricity by Synapse Energy. “PJM now faces an inflection point.”
Maryland ratepayers will also see an additional cost as a result of an PJM energy auction held last summer; Maryland consumer advocates have argued that this auction should be rerun to potentially save consumers $90 million in utility payments.
“It occurred because defective market rules either ignored or allowed market participants to withhold thousands of megawatts of existing capacity, while interconnection delays, a compressed auction forward period, and other entry barriers prevented the participation of new supply capable of disciplining incumbent market power,” read a letter signed by the Maryland Office of the People’s Counsel.
Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E) consumers are expected to see monthly rate increases of over $16 beginning in June, a decision that the Maryland People’s Counsel and dozens of legislators are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to fight.
Public Service Commission (PSC) Chair Frederick H. Hoover said a recent PSC order to limit rate hikes was being done to “mitigate the impacts felt by customers as a result of higher-than-expected energy costs, coupled with potential high usage in the coming months.”
Hugo Cantu, representative of the Apartment and Office Building Association (AOBA), noted that higher energy costs also limit options for renters and developers.
“Higher energy costs also have an impact on tenants and affordability. Housing is already costly because we aren’t producing enough housing to keep up with demand. Higher energy costs are another expense that tenants have to factor in when deciding to rent,” he said.
Maybe not shutting down power plants until new sources were available when explicitly warned by PJM then buying back the same power from said plants at auction rates is an utter failure of competent governance. Wes Moore needs to resign.
Power from other states Wes Moore cant regulate and ND will just have rolling blackouts. Companies do not have to provide services not less than cost. Cant wait when those windmills go up in Chevy Chase Village!