Public Service Commission Grants People's Counsel Request to Strike Electrification Plan From Rate Case
BALTIMORE – The Public Service Commission yesterday granted the Office of People’s Counsel’s request to strike Baltimore Gas & Electric’s proposed electrification plan from its pending multi-year rate case, finding it inappropriate for consideration in a rate case.
“Electrifying our appliances is the lowest cost path for Maryland’s residential customers to meet the State’s climate policy goals,” said People’s Counsel David S. Lapp. “But it is important that the State—not its private utilities—decide the policy path for electrifying and do so in a setting that permits adequate fact-finding, analysis, and evaluation. We applaud the Commission’s recognition that a utility’s rate case is not such a setting.”
The Office of People’s Counsel’s motion, filed in June, explained that BGE’s proposal involved critical policy decisions that should not be made while the State is still developing its plan to implement the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022. The motion also explained that the proposal would be a costly, radical departure from BGE’s core obligation to deliver electricity and gas to its customers and that the proposal would allow the company to profit from rebates it offers to individual customers who buy new electric appliances—resulting in total costs to customers of nearly $400 million. Commission staff and the Maryland Energy Administration filed in support of OPC’s motion. BGE’s proposal was part of its multi-year rate plan filed in February that, if approved, would raise customer rates—after removal of the electrification proposal—by more than $550 million over three years. (See here for more information.)
The Commission’s order found BGE’s proposal premature, given that a State plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is pending and that BGE’s plan is a major new policy proposal that should be considered in a docket separate from a rate case. The Commission also agreed with OPC that BGE’s proposal to condition rebates for electric appliances on customer agreement to retain their gas furnaces could contradict the pending State plan.
“The Commission’s decision appropriately elevates the public interest over BGE’s private interests,” Lapp said. “It is an important step in advancing smart policies to further the State’s efforts to combat climate change.”
The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel is an independent state agency that represents Maryland’s residential consumers of electric, natural gas, telecommunications, private water and certain transportation matters before the Public Service Commission, federal regulatory agencies and the courts.
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