A dispute over Maryland utility law has left more than $32 million in possible customer refunds unresolved.
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Delmarva Power say they don't have to pay back money they collected in excess. For residents already strained by expensive gas and electric service, the outcome decides whether that money goes back to customers or stays with the two Exelon-owned utilities.
Here's what to know
According to state filings cited by The Baltimore Banner, BGE took in about $28 million more than expected from customers in 2025, while Delmarva collected $4.27 million too much.
The Maryland Office of People's Counsel sought a refund from BGE in July. It also asked the commission to hold a joint hearing covering both utilities.
People's Counsel David Lapp said the case is the kind regulators are supposed to address.
"The PSC created a path for a rate adjustment when there is a 'significant disparity between [the utility's] revenues and expenses to the detriment of ratepayers,'" Lapp said in a statement. "That is the case here, and the PSC should require BGE and Delmarva Power to refund the excess revenues the utilities collected from customers."
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BGE sees it differently, saying changes in Maryland law block this kind of review for the period in question.
BGE spokesperson Nick Alexopulos said, "the type of after-the-fact review that would be needed to refund a prior-year overcollection is no longer available under current law."
The disagreement centers on how Maryland compares what utilities plan to spend against what they actually spend and collect, a process called reconciliation. The Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 barred utilities from filing for reconciliation unless they filed on or before January 1, 2025, the Banner reported.
More background
BGE and Delmarva don't adjust rates every year. Instead, the five-member Public Service Commission approves gas and electric rates for three-year stretches at a time.
That gap between projected and actual billing can grow into a sizable total before customers see any adjustment.
BGE, the state's largest utility, serves roughly 1.3 million electric accounts and 700,000 gas accounts across Baltimore City and eight other counties. Delmarva serves upward of 217,000 electric accounts in Maryland.
BGE says the picture is more complicated than it looks. Alexopulos said that while the company over-collected on gas revenues, "there was an even greater undercollection on electric revenues."
What's being done?
The Office of People's Counsel wants the Public Service Commission to hold a formal hearing to settle the dispute. The commission has final authority here and hadn't weighed in on that hearing request as of the Banner's report.
Lawmakers revised the reconciliation process again through the Utility RELIEF Act, but those changes weren't retroactive.
That left the Exelon-owned utilities room to reject the refund demands tied to the earlier period.
The commission's technical staff backed the utilities' reading of the law in a filing, writing, "The legislature clearly could have chosen to make the new law retroactive, but it did not. The law, as written, contains no references that would assume a retroactive application of the law."
The commission hasn't ruled yet.
Where can I learn more?
Utility fights in other places offer a sense of how billing disputes can grow into larger legal and political clashes. These cases are separate from Maryland's refund question, but they highlight the same basic issue: who ends up paying when regulators, courts, and utility companies don't agree.
• In the West, PacifiCorp sought approval for billing customers for $1.7 billion in wildfire damages.
• In British Columbia, residents sued FortisBC over alleged deceptive marketing of renewable natural gas.
• In Oregon, officials added NW Natural to a $50 billion lawsuit over heatwave impacts.
Each dispute points to the same reality: utility decisions can quickly show up on customers' bills. That's part of why Maryland's unresolved refund case carries stakes that reach beyond a single billing period.
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