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PSC consumer-affairs director: complaints up 79% as agency opens limited-income mechanism
Summary
The Maryland Public Service Commission reported a 79% year-over-year increase in utility complaints and said it opened docket PC59 to create a limited-income protection mechanism while urging residents to apply for energy-assistance programs and to participate in rate dockets.
Stephanie Bolton, Director of the Maryland Public Service Commission's Consumer Affairs Division, told the committee that her team handled 4,760 complaints in the calendar year and saw a 79% increase in complaints from 2024 to 2025. "Affordability is touching pretty close to 90% of the complaints that we get," she said, and described the most common complaint topics as billing, termination of service, payment disputes and meter concerns.
Bolton told the committee the PSC has opened docket PC59 to create a limited-income mechanism authorized by recent legislation and urged constituents to use available programs such as the Office of Home Energy Programs and the Maryland 1 app. She also encouraged public participation in pending rate cases (including the Pepco filing referenced in the hearing) through petitions to intervene or by submitting written comments to the public record.
