OPC report on EmPOWER programs: Most utilities achieved statutory goals, overestimated budgets, and generated low-cost savings
BALTIMORE – Most utilities with EmPOWER Maryland energy-efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction programs overestimated the budgets needed to reach statutory goals and produced energy savings for customers at a cost well below the cost of buying electricity, according to a report the Office of People’s Counsel released this week.
“The report shows that in 2025, EmPOWER continued to generate low-cost energy-efficiency savings for customers,” said Maryland People’s Counsel David S. Lapp. “Importantly, these savings occurred following the legislature’s 2024 change in the statutory goals from targeting energy savings to greenhouse gas reductions.”
Except for Washington Gas, all the utilities achieved their statutory minimum GHG-reduction goals.
OPC’s report is a comprehensive evaluation of the performance of each utility’s programs in 2025. In 2025, EmPOWER programs were provided by Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), Delmarva Power and Light, Pepco, Potomac Edison, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, and Washington Gas, as well as by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
In 2025, EmPOWER generated energy-efficiency savings at a cost of 6.2 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh)—which is substantially less than the total supply and distribution rates most customers pay—and GHG reductions at an average cost of $300 per ton across the electric utilities and BGE, the report finds.
OPC’s report makes a number of recommendations, including that the Public Service Commission (PSC) direct utilities to deploy existing demand-response tools—such as programs that enable utilities to adjust thermostats or curtail water heating—to reduce electricity demand during times of peak demand. Demand-response programs promote system reliability and can reduce transmission and generation costs. The report also recommends that the PSC eliminate incentives for central air conditioners in favor of high-efficiency air-source heat pumps that provide both heating and cooling.
Completed prior to the conclusion of the recent legislative session, OPC’s report also recommends that the PSC terminate incentives for the purchase of gas appliances—a recommendation OPC has been making for several years in its annual EmPOWER reports and in other proceedings before the PSC. Washington Gas is the only utility still incentivizing the purchase of gas appliances.
The Utility RELIEF Act—passed earlier this week and expected to be signed into law by Maryland Governor Wes Moore—will end gas EmPOWER programs altogether. The Utility RELIEF Act also temporarily lowers and delays planned increases to EmPOWER’s statutory targets in an effort to reduce EmPOWER surcharges and customer bills, and it directs the PSC to examine the merits of transitioning the EmPOWER program away from utility administration to a single third-party administrator, which may bring benefits such as curbing administrative costs and reducing the complexity of the program.
EmPOWER is Maryland’s utility-customer-funded program to support energy efficiency, conservation, greenhouse gas reductions, and demand response. Residential EmPOWER programs include HVAC programs that promote efficient appliances for heating and cooling, home retrofits and checkups to identify measures to produce immediate cost savings, comprehensive energy audits, behavioral programs designed to motivate customers to take energy-saving steps, energy-efficiency toolkits, and demand-response programs designed to reduce peak demands on the electric system. The Maryland DHCD provides programs at no additional cost to eligible low-income customers in both single-family and multifamily homes. For more information on EmPOWER or to find incentives offered by DHCD or your utility, visit OPC’s website.
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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