Baltimore Power Bills to Jump 11% Next Year as Costs Soar

(Bloomberg) -- Baltimore-area homeowners will likely see electric utility bills climb 11% starting mid-2025 after the cost of procuring supplies soared to an all-time high in a grid auction last month. 

The average bill will jump by about $18 a month in Exelon Corp.’s Baltimore Gas & Electric utility territory for the 12 months beginning June 2025 based on early estimates, the utility’s chief executive Carim Khouzami said in an interview. The increase is the direct result of a regional grid auction that set payouts to power plants serving BGE customers at $466.35 per megawatt-day compared to $73 per megawatt-day for the current year, he said.

“What we are seeing is a significant amount of electricity demand increase and supply is going down, which is causing this price increase,” Khouzami said. BGE already imports about 70% of its electricity and two aging plants that make up the utility’s biggest supplies are at risk of shutting down. 

Homes and businesses across the 13-state US Eastern grid that includes the Baltimore area are facing higher costs as old plants shut down faster than new ones can be built. Meanwhile, demand growth is starting to rev up because of data center use, electrification of cars to homes and a return of manufacturing.  

The double-digit spike for bills in Baltimore and other jurisdictions will accelerate the company’s focus on affordability, Exelon chief financial officer Jeanne Jones said on a recent earnings call. “We need to get to solutions, whether it’s more generation, whether it’s more transmission, which we stand ready to do and are already proactively doing that,” Jones said Aug. 1.

The utility, which serves more than 1.3 million electric customers, saw the biggest pinch from the auction held by grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC. The higher costs will be directly passed on to consumers and do not reflect a BGE rate increase, Khouzami said. Typically wholesale power costs, which include capacity payments, account for 60% of a bill. The rest comes from BGE delivery charges. 

(Adds recent comments from company executive in 4th paragraph)

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