Maryland PSC presses BGE for clearer call-center metrics as company reports rapid improvements

The Maryland Public Service Commission pressed Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. on steps to fix chronic call-center failures on Feb. 2, while company officials said recent changes have sharply cut wait times and improved punctuality for scheduled callbacks. The company agreed to provide the commission with clearer metric definitions and more frequent filings after staff, the Consumer Affairs Division and the Office of People’s Counsel said the original corrective action plan lacked baselines and several proposed measures.

The dispute centered on which metrics will determine whether BGE’s corrective action plan (CAP) has succeeded and how often the utility must report progress. Staff and the joint parties asked the commission to require monthly reporting and baseline values from at least the past three calendar years; BGE said it already reports COMAR metrics annually and offered to provide the additional measures on a monthly or quarterly cadence depending on the commission’s order.

“This was unacceptable on December 17,” Steven Singh, BGE’s vice president of customer operations, said in an update. “Average wait times since we last met have improved from 150 minutes to 32 minutes, which represents a 79% reduction.” He added that punctuality for scheduled callbacks rose from about 21% to 85% and that staffing climbed from 184 to 209, with plans to reach 229 in February and 249 in March.

Staff and OPC pushed back. A Consumer Affairs Division representative said CAD’s monthly data showed BGE failed to meet the COMAR standard that 75% of customer-service and outage calls be answered within 30 seconds in recent months, and staff warned the commission could use its statutory authority under the Public Utilities Article to impose civil penalties if BGE does not meet industry standards. Staff asked the commission to order BGE to include baseline values in its filings and to produce monthly and quarterly reports of the joint metrics.

BGE counsel said the commission’s regulations (COMAR 20.50.12.08) already set quantitative targets — including the 75%/30-second answer-time standard and an annual abandoned-call rate under 5% — and argued against creating BGE-specific standards. Counsel also asked the commission to pause discovery, saying staff had served 185 data requests that were administratively burdensome; staff and OPC opposed suspending discovery and said responsiveness is part of transparency and accountability.

Taryn Mitchell, senior manager of BGE’s call center, told commissioners that supplemental internal staff and vendor resources are now taking calls (26 internal supplemental staff and 15 vendor agents that started Feb. 2), and that internal hires are in background checks with training slated to begin Feb. 23. Mitchell said a “second chance callback” feature completed user-acceptance testing and is slated for production Feb. 10.

Commissioners pressed for clarity on baselines and reporting. Some said annual COMAR filings masked the recent period of poor performance and that monthly data are needed to show where the system stands now and whether improvements hold. The panel directed the parties to meet in person to iron out definitions and asked staff to report the outcome of that meeting to the commission. The Commission did not issue a final order on the CAP in the hearing; staff investigations and the data-request process will continue.

A separate operational question — the cost of running business-customer operations 24/7 — was raised. BGE estimated an incremental cost of about $4.7 million to staff business-line operations around the clock; the company noted most non-emergency business calls occur 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

What happens next: the commission asked staff to report back after a meeting among BGE, OPC, CAD and commission technical staff. If the commission adopts the joint filing’s metric definitions and BGE reports as agreed, staff said that could resolve the dispute; otherwise the commission retains authority to require additional reporting or to pursue penalties under the Public Utilities Article.