PSC grants PTOIC Edison limited waiver for hosting-capacity reporting, requires status reports

The Maryland Public Service Commission on July 1 granted PTOIC Edison Company a limited, temporary waiver from recently adopted emergency hosting-capacity reporting requirements, allowing the utility extra time to deploy software and engineering changes while directing the company to continue publishing currently available information and to file periodic implementation updates.

Staff attorney DeAndre Wilson told commissioners the company’s waiver request stems from its current hosting-capacity reporting software being unable to produce the expanded circuit-, feeder- and substation-level detail required by emergency COMAR revisions adopted under RM94. Wilson said the company provided an implementation schedule and that staff recommended against the full-duration waiver requested by PTOIC Edison; instead staff urged a short, conditional extension through Oct. 10, 2026, tied to ongoing publication of available maps and reporting milestones.

"Based on the record, the requested waiver is primarily about implementation timing and system transition rather than a permanent inability to comply," Wilson said, recommending limited relief with conditions.

Office of People’s Counsel attorney Mark Bird urged denial without prejudice, saying emergency regulations are meant to take effect on an expedited timetable and that PTOIC Edison had not shown a limited waiver would avoid harm to stakeholders relying on the new data. "Timing is everything for emergency regulations," Bird said. "Without analysis of the outward effect on stakeholders, the company has not made the showing necessary to grant waiver."

Company counsel Contasia Scott and subject-matter expert Andrew Resitar told the commission the reporting changes are technically complex and resource-intensive. "Our software is simply incompatible with the level of granularity being requested today," Scott said, while Resitar described ongoing engineering work to prepare circuit models that must feed the data conversion and posting pipeline. The company provided a timeline that anticipates publication of updated hosting-capacity maps by Dec. 31, 2026, and software completion targeted in early 2027, though it asked for limited relief during the emergency-regulation effective period.

After questioning and debate, a commissioner moved to deny the company’s full-duration waiver request and instead grant limited, temporary relief through Oct. 10, 2026, subject to conditions described in the staff bucksheet: continued publication of all currently available hosting-capacity information during the waiver period, periodic implementation-status reports showing progress toward milestones, prompt notice of any anticipated delays, and a filing within 30 days following adoption of permanent regulations identifying compliance or an updated implementation plan. The motion carried, with commissioners recording affirmative votes.

Why it matters: the emergency COMAR changes were adopted to reduce interconnection delays tied to federal tax-credit and clean-energy timelines, and the commission’s conditions are designed to balance the state’s policy goal of faster, more transparent interconnection information against a company’s resource and technical constraints. PTOIC Edison will now work with staff on the required status reporting and any supplemental filings.