County hearing highlights regional market pressures, data-center impacts and gaps in customer outreach as bills rise

Montgomery County’s Transportation and Environment Committee convened a multi-agency panel Feb. 5 to explain why residential gas, electric and water bills have jumped and what assistance is available.

Panelists from the Maryland People’s Council, the Maryland Public Service Commission, Pepco, Washington Gas and WSSC Water described multiple drivers: volatile supply (commodity) prices, significant increases in regulated distribution (delivery) charges, transmission and capacity costs in PJM auctions and rapid load growth from hyperscale data centers in adjacent states. The Public Service Commission said complaints rose sharply — the Consumer Affairs Division reported 4,760 complaints in 2025, a 79% increase from 2024.

David Lapp of the Maryland People’s Council told the committee that distribution charges for Exelon-owned Maryland utilities have climbed far faster than supply costs in recent years and said data-center-driven capacity and transmission costs are imposing large, long-term burdens. "Once these rates go up, they're locked in for decades," Lapp said, and the office is engaged at PJM and at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to contest allocations that shift data-center costs onto Maryland customers.

Stephanie Bolton, director of the PSC’s Consumer Affairs Division, said the commission is tracking complaints and has opened dockets and mechanisms intended to help low-income customers, including a limited-income mechanism in docket PC 59 and outreach to enroll eligible residents in state assistance programs. "Affordability is touching pretty close to 90% of the complaints that we get," Bolton said.

Pepco representatives said supply-price volatility has been a recent driver and outlined customer-facing relief: budget billing, payment arrangements, alerts, an assistance-finder tool and a company relief fund. Pepco said average generation and transmission costs have risen and that a combined set of factors contributed to an approximately $16.34 monthly increase implemented Jan. 1 for customers they reviewed. The company also said it is opening a second round of a customer-relief fund in Maryland.

Washington Gas described the composition of its bills and reported it filed a Maryland rate case Dec. 29 seeking roughly $82.5 million in total revenues, which the company estimated would add about $7.87 per month for an average residential heating customer, or roughly an 8.5% increase for heating customers when amortized across the request. Washington Gas also described payment plans, extended installment options (up to 12 months generally, up to 24 months for customers receiving energy assistance), and charitable programs such as the Washington Area Fuel Fund.

WSSC Water described long-term increases in water service costs, WSSC’s customer-assistance programs and federal support history: the system said it provided roughly $1.4 million in FY25 to more than 4,200 Montgomery County customers and had distributed roughly $407,000 from a customer-relief fund to 612 Montgomery County customers while that fund remained active.

During council Q&A, members pressed whether increased demand was coming from Montgomery County customers or from regional load growth driven by out-of-state data centers. Panelists said PJM is region-wide and that costs can be allocated across zones; they also noted active proceedings and regulatory advocacy intended to shift costs to the zones where the data centers are located.

On retail supply choices, panelists said that reforms (Senate Bill 1) reduced predatory third-party supplier activity but also reduced the number of competitive retail offers, which has contributed to confusion when supplier contracts were terminated or ended.

Committee members said they would follow up with state regulators and the county’s Annapolis delegation to press for greater protections and equitable cost allocation. The meeting adjourned without additional committee action recorded on the utility rate matters.