Competitive Energy Markets in Maryland

A task force charged with analyzing the current state of customer choice programs in Maryland has urged the Maryland Public Service Commission to institute a rulemaking proceeding through which to consider certain recommendations from the working group for augmenting competition within the state’s retail energy markets.

The collaborative had been established in early 2017 and was instructed to study how effective or ineffective Maryland’s retail choice programs are. The work group reported that a critical impediment to the exercise of customer choice rested with the administrative and procedural burdens associated with the enrollment process. Consequently, one of the primary proposals from the task force was for implementation of an “instant connect” or “first day shopping” protocol for customers opting to take service from a competitive electric supplier.

According to the work group, the delays often inherent in moving from a utility to an alternate supplier was one of the biggest drawbacks to consumer participation in choice programs. The work group similarly advocated for a new system of “seamless moves,” whereby a residential or small business customer could relocate within the same service territory without any disruption in their current supply arrangement.

The task force expounded that present regulations require a customer who is moving to be returned to utility-provided default service and then reapply for a contract with the alternate supplier, thus causing a cumbersome and unnecessarily timeconsuming process for securing the service actually desired. In its letter asking the commission to commence a rulemaking docket, the work group presented certain draft regulations that is said had been designed to remedy the problems the group had identified in the state’s current customer choice rules.