Howard County council hears BGE plan to run underground fiber through Rockburn Branch Park; vote on easements set for March 3

Howard County Council members discussed requests from Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) on Tuesday during the council’s regular February work session to amend an existing transmission easement (CR 44), grant a new utility easement (referred to in the presentation as CR 45), and approve a small Church Avenue easement so BGE can install underground fiber as part of its grid communications and connectivity program.

BGE officials said the 70‑mile program is funded in part by an Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) grant administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and that the company received $15,400,000 for the project. "We received $15,400,000, and we have until 2027 to complete this work," said Candice Butterworth, program lead for BGE’s grid communications and connectivity program. BGE staff told the council the work in Howard County includes a roughly 9.6‑mile segment they call the Howard route that detours through Rockburn Branch Park due to easement limitations on nearby private parcels.

Why it matters: BGE said the underground fiber will be used primarily for grid modernization and real‑time communications with substations, which the company says reduces outages and improves storm resilience. Sonia Harbaugh, BGE director of strategy, described the program as a "grid communications" effort that also creates a middle‑mile network for potential dark‑fiber leasing to internet service providers and data centers, but she emphasized, "We're never going to be an Internet provider." BGE said the company expects some conduits to be reserved for utility operations and the remainder to be available for third‑party leasing; revenues from leasing would be…