Systems for local, distributed energy resources should promote competition and not utility control, OPC tells Public Service Commission
Correction: The version of this press release issued on December 3, 2025, incorrectly stated that Potomac Edison had not included a cost estimate and incompletely summarized the company’s proposal. The statement has been corrected in the final paragraph below.
BALTIMORE – The State is facing a pivotal moment in determining how electric utilities deploy systems to promote distributed energy resources, such as locally controlled solar, storage, and energy management systems, and whether customers will benefit from these technologies or just pay more, the Office of People’s Counsel told the Public Service Commission at a hearing this week.
“The way that the Commission directs the utilities to proceed will shape whether Maryland builds an open framework for distributed energy resources that protects ratepayers and supports competition,” Maryland People’s Counsel David S. Lapp said. “Without the right direction, the State risks drifting toward fragmented, utility-centered systems that impose unnecessary costs on customers and will be difficult to coordinate with regional markets and neighboring states.”
OPC’s presentation follows its written comments submitted last month on reports of the Maryland major electric utilities that provide an overview of their distribution systems, databases, metering systems, communication platforms, and insight into their investment plans for allowing the aggregation of customer-sited resources and participation of “virtual power plants”—combinations of distributed resources to support the power system—in electricity markets.
Virtual power plants (VPPs) combine resources such as battery storage, energy efficiency, EV chargers, solar panels, and changes in energy consumption across multiple customers to provide flexible options for meeting electric energy and capacity needs in ways that reduce electric system investments and customer costs. Studies show that VPPs can produce significant cost savings for customers, and the General Assembly enacted legislation in 2024 to promote distributed energy resources and VPPs.
OPC’s comments focused on Maryland’s framework for developing Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS)—platforms that enable customer-owned distributed resources to be combined and coordinated to compete in energy markets and reduce system costs while saving customers on their energy bills. OPC’s key recommendations include:
- Utility DERMS investments should use common platforms that facilitate communication and data exchange across different utilities and markets, avoiding Maryland-specific technology investments and preserving meaningful roles for competitive companies and customer choice.
- Maryland’s registry for distributed resources should be standardized and be capable at the outset of exchanging data with the registry created by the regional system operator, PJM Interconnection, LLC, and not function merely as an internal utility database or a source of periodic reports to the Commission.
- Using a flexible but deliberate approach to utility investments that measures electricity usage or output at the level of individual devices—such as solar inverters, storage systems, and EV chargers—to avoid costly investments that burden ratepayers with unnecessary expenses while the technology matures.
- Advancing a common platform (such as Green Button Connect) for providing a standardized, and secure way to share customer data with aggregators for meaningful participation in markets for distributed energy resources.
OPC’s comments flagged concerns about the utility’s reports on their preliminary plans for DERMS investments. OPC pointed out that despite its high price tag of $9.11 million, Baltimore Gas and Electric’s report provides limited insight into how its investments will support near-term VPP deployment or compliance with federal requirements, leaving unanswered whether its plans will deliver real customer benefits. Pepco and Delmarva Power’s filing, with a cost estimate of $4.02 million, similarly leave important questions unanswered, OPC said. SMECO’s filing takes a $5 million, six-year approach toward early DERMS steps, leaving open the question of when a fully realized DERMS platform will take shape.
Potomac Edison’s plan describes an approach in which the company will rely on contracted edge-DERMS providers for several years while awaiting a broader decision by its parent company on whether—and when—to implement an internal grid-DERMS. Potomac Edison’s filing includes a preliminary Maryland-allocated cost estimate of about $2.08 million over three years for an enterprise grid-DERMS component. While Potomac Edison plans to proceed with device-level telemetry for its pilot programs, OPC’s comments noted skepticism that virtual power plant functionality can be achieved without advanced metering infrastructure.
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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