Maryland electricity rates and bills

A kilowatt-hour in Maryland, by period

Over the 12 months from September 2025 to August 2026, Maryland's residential customers paid an average of 21.18¢ per kWh, 17.4% above the US average and 14th highest¹ among the 50 states and DC. The figure is average revenue per kWh: what homes paid in total, fixed charges and riders included, divided by the electricity they used. It is not a line on any tariff.

The single month of August 2026 came in at 21.40¢ per kWh, +7.6% against the same month a year earlier (19.89¢ per kWh); monthly figures for 2026 are preliminary. The 2025 annual average was 19.53¢ per kWh⁴, and the average for January to August 2026 was 21.31¢ per kWh¹.

Among Maryland's 5 neighbors, counting the District of Columbia, 4 had a lower residential price over the last 12 months. West Virginia was lowest at 15.53¢ per kWh; The District of Columbia was highest at 24.48¢ per kWh¹.

Why the bill ranks higher than the price

Maryland homes use somewhat more electricity than the US average and pay more for each kWh. Over the last 12 months the average Maryland home used 955 kWh a month, against 875 kWh nationally, and paid 3.14¢ per kWh more than the US average for each of them. The result was a computed bill of $202.30 against $157.84¹ for the US over the same 12 months.

The annual EIA figures tell the same story. In 2025 the average residential bill was $184.42, 3rd highest in the country and $33.74 more a month than the US average, up 11.2%² from $165.87⁵ in 2024.

Households report it too. In the Census Bureau's 2025 American Community Survey, Maryland households paying for electricity put their median monthly cost at about $205 (2nd highest among the states, against $169 nationally), and 37.1% reported $250 or more (margin of error ±0.6 percentage points), +5.7 percentage points⁶ on the 2024 survey. The survey figures are estimates of recalled bills, taxes included, and the change between the two years is not tested for significance.

Hawaii$227.70

Maryland$202.30

Connecticut$192.61

Alabama$187.39

Massachusetts$183.15

Texas$178.09

Virginia$177.46

Pennsylvania$174.48

Mississippi$173.85

New Hampshire$173.23

Florida$168.99

South Carolina$168.68

United States$157.84

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Residential revenue over the last 12 months divided by the average number of customers, per month (our computation from EIA-861M). Period: September 2025 to August 2026.

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State	Average residential bill, last 12 months (computed)
Hawaii	$227.70
Maryland	$202.30
Connecticut	$192.61
Alabama	$187.39
Massachusetts	$183.15
Texas	$178.09
Virginia	$177.46
Pennsylvania	$174.48
Mississippi	$173.85
New Hampshire	$173.23
Florida	$168.99
South Carolina	$168.68
United States	$157.84

Did Maryland electricity rates go up?

Yes, and faster than in most states. The residential average rose 9.4% from 2024 to 2025 (6th highest among the states), then a further 12.7% in the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before, compared with 6.5%¹ for the US. The annual average last fell in 2020; since 2020 it has climbed 50.1%, from 13.01¢ per kWh to 19.53¢ per kWh⁴.

Maryland's utilities belong to the wholesale market and grid run by PJM Interconnection, where the power for their default supply is bought. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 2026 review of retail prices reports Maryland's average retail price up 1.5¢ per kWh from 2024 to 2025 and links the rise in PJM states to capacity costs, which added 0.9¢ per kWh to average PJM wholesale costs in 2025, and to higher wholesale energy costs (1.7¢ per kWh) as fuel prices rose. The laboratory expects capacity to add another 0.6¢ per kWh⁷ in 2026.

MarylandUnited States

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Average revenue per kWh (all charges, nominal dollars), each month; summer and winter months differ by season. Monthly EIA data through August 2026 (released October 23, 2026); months since January 2026 are preliminary.

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Period	Maryland (¢/kWh)	United States (¢/kWh)
Jan 2022	13.38¢	13.64¢
Feb 2022	14.04¢	13.76¢
Mar 2022	14.14¢	14.41¢
Apr 2022	14.11¢	14.57¢
May 2022	14.17¢	14.89¢
Jun 2022	14.61¢	15.30¢
Jul 2022	14.22¢	15.31¢
Aug 2022	14.24¢	15.82¢
Sep 2022	14.55¢	16.19¢
Oct 2022	15.84¢	15.99¢
Nov 2022	15.37¢	15.55¢
Dec 2022	15.53¢	14.94¢
Jan 2023	15.98¢	15.47¢
Feb 2023	16.22¢	15.98¢
Mar 2023	15.85¢	16.04¢
Apr 2023	15.92¢	16.10¢
May 2023	16.08¢	16.14¢
Jun 2023	17.00¢	16.09¢
Jul 2023	16.02¢	15.86¢
Aug 2023	16.39¢	15.91¢
Sep 2023	16.95¢	16.27¢
Oct 2023	18.38¢	16.48¢
Nov 2023	17.38¢	16.19¢
Dec 2023	17.46¢	15.69¢
Jan 2024	17.45¢	15.41¢
Feb 2024	17.58¢	16.10¢
Mar 2024	18.07¢	16.67¢
Apr 2024	17.85¢	16.86¢
May 2024	17.62¢	16.40¢
Jun 2024	17.41¢	16.38¢
Jul 2024	17.24¢	16.62¢
Aug 2024	17.83¢	16.60¢
Sep 2024	18.36¢	16.82¢
Oct 2024	19.21¢	17.09¢
Nov 2024	18.40¢	16.85¢
Dec 2024	18.13¢	16.27¢
Jan 2025	18.25¢	15.92¢
Feb 2025	18.33¢	16.40¢
Mar 2025	19.01¢	17.03¢
Apr 2025	19.12¢	17.20¢
May 2025	19.07¢	17.33¢
Jun 2025	19.34¢	17.44¢
Jul 2025	18.89¢	17.39¢
Aug 2025	19.89¢	17.57¢
Sep 2025	21.10¢	18.05¢
Oct 2025	22.36¢	17.95¢
Nov 2025	21.38¢	17.77¢
Dec 2025	19.59¢	17.11¢
Jan 2026	20.61¢	17.45¢
Feb 2026	20.08¢	17.65¢
Mar 2026	22.20¢	18.60¢
Apr 2026	22.07¢	18.86¢
May 2026	21.78¢	18.44¢
Jun 2026	21.84¢	18.34¢
Jul 2026	21.41¢	18.31¢
Aug 2026	21.40¢	18.16¢

Businesses took larger increases than homes. Over the last 12 months the commercial price rose 18.5% (3rd highest) to 16.61¢ per kWh, and the industrial price 24.2% (3rd highest) to 14.35¢ per kWh. For January to August 2026 against the same months of 2025, the commercial increase of 19.4% was the 2nd highest¹ in the country.

The longer view is steeper still. Maryland homes paid 7.67¢ per kWh⁸ in 2001; by 2025 the average was 154.6% higher, the 4th highest rise among the states, against 100.8%⁴ for the US over the same years.

Two price levels among five utilities

Five utilities deliver power to 97.0% of Maryland's residential customers, and they fall into two groups. In 2025, full-service residential customers of BGE paid an average of 20.19¢ per kWh, those of Pepco 21.74¢ per kWh and those of Delmarva Power 21.81¢ per kWh. In western Maryland, Potomac Edison, a FirstEnergy utility, averaged 15.44¢ per kWh, and in Southern Maryland the cooperative SMECO averaged 16.43¢ per kWh³.

Potomac Edison (MD)15.44¢

SMECO (MD)16.43¢

BGE (MD)20.19¢

Pepco (MD)21.74¢

Delmarva Power (MD)21.81¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. EIA-861 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh is all charges divided by kWh; it is not a tariff rate.

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Utility	average residential price (bundled customers)
Potomac Edison (MD)	15.44¢
SMECO (MD)	16.43¢
BGE (MD)	20.19¢
Pepco (MD)	21.74¢
Delmarva Power (MD)	21.81¢

The lowest price does not mean the lowest bill. SMECO's homes used 1,171 kWh a month in 2025 against 835 kWh at Pepco, so SMECO's average bill ($192.34) was higher than Pepco's ($181.58) despite the lower price. Delmarva Power, serving most of the Eastern Shore, combined a high price with above-average use and had the largest bill of the five, $214.05³.

Among the 7 utilities with 10,000 or more residential customers, averages ran from 11.23¢ per kWh at the municipal Hagerstown Light Department to 21.81¢ per kWh at Delmarva Power, a spread of 10.58¢ per kWh. Across ownership types, investor-owned utilities averaged 20.00¢ per kWh, the 3 cooperatives 16.59¢ per kWh and public power 12.80¢ per kWh³.

EIA publishes no prices for cities such as Baltimore, only for utilities and states. BGE alone has 49.5%³ of the state's residential customers, but EIA's service-territory records list two or more distribution utilities in 17 of Maryland's 24 counties (Baltimore City counted as one), and 3⁹ in Montgomery County: BGE, Pepco and Potomac Edison. The utility's own territory map decides by address.

BGE only (of these)Pepco only (of these)Potomac Edison only (of these)Delmarva Power only (of these)SMECO only (of these)Two or more of themOther utilities only

Source: EIA-861 2025, service territory; Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file, counties. Counties where each utility reports serving customers (EIA-861 service territory, 2025). A utility often serves only part of a county, and several can share one: the map shows where each one is present, not street-level boundaries. Point at a county for every utility listed there.

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County	Utilities reporting service
Allegany County	Potomac Edison
Anne Arundel County	BGE
Baltimore city	BGE
Baltimore County	BGE
Calvert County	BGE, SMECO
Caroline County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative
Carroll County	BGE, Potomac Edison
Cecil County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative
Charles County	SMECO
Dorchester County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative
Frederick County	Potomac Edison, Thurmont Municipal Light Co
Garrett County	Potomac Edison
Harford County	BGE, Delmarva Power
Howard County	BGE, Potomac Edison
Kent County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative
Montgomery County	BGE, Pepco, Potomac Edison
Prince George's County	BGE, Pepco, SMECO
Queen Anne's County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative
Somerset County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative, A & N Electric Cooperative
St. Mary's County	SMECO
Talbot County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative, Easton Utilities Comm
Washington County	Potomac Edison, Hagerstown Light Department, Town of Williamsport
Wicomico County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative
Worcester County	Delmarva Power, Choptank Electric Cooperative, Town of Berlin

Peak-time rebates, not time-of-use pricing

EIA counts 69.0% of Maryland's residential customers on time-varying rates in 2025, the highest share among the states. Almost all of them are in one kind of program. BGE reported 96.5% of its residential customers enrolled, Pepco 70.7% and Delmarva Power 68.8%, and all three reported the program type as critical peak rebates¹¹: a credit for using less electricity during announced peak events, on top of the normal price per kWh. It is not a time-of-use tariff in which the price per kWh changes by hour.

Time-of-use pricing proper is rare. Potomac Edison and SMECO, the two utilities that reported time-of-use programs, had 0.9% and 0.9% of their residential customers enrolled. Advanced (AMI) meters made up 87.8% of Maryland's residential meters in 2025 and 98.1%¹¹ at BGE.

Maryland69.0%

Colorado58.2%

Delaware54.5%

Missouri53.2%

Michigan39.0%

Arizona37.7%

California35.9%

Oklahoma33.1%

Montana17.0%

United States11.3%

Illinois10.2%

Source: EIA-861 2025, advanced meters, dynamic pricing and net metering. Residential customers enrolled in time-of-use, real-time, variable-peak or critical-peak pricing (EIA-861 Dynamic_Pricing), as a share of residential customers. Period: 2025.

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State	On time-varying rates
Maryland	69.0%
Colorado	58.2%
Delaware	54.5%
Missouri	53.2%
Michigan	39.0%
Arizona	37.7%
California	35.9%
Oklahoma	33.1%
Montana	17.0%
United States	11.3%
Illinois	10.2%

Rooftop solar is more common than in most states: 118,789 residential net-metered installations in 2025, 48.1 per 1,000 customers (12th highest), with 71.1¹¹ per 1,000 at Pepco.

Standard Offer Service or a supplier

Every Maryland home gets its power delivered by its utility. The supply comes either from the utility's Standard Offer Service or from a licensed supplier. According to the Maryland Public Service Commission, utilities buy Standard Offer Service electricity from wholesale suppliers through competitive bidding that the Commission oversees, with bids for residential customers held twice a year. The Commission's official electric choice site lists licensed suppliers.

Very few households buy from a supplier now. The Public Service Commission's enrollment reports for the investor-owned utilities and SMECO counted 275,272 residential supplier customers in December 2024 (11.6% of residential accounts), 10,977 in December 2025 and 1,955 in September 2026 (0.08%¹²). EIA's annual figure for 2025, 137,184³ homes, falls between those counts because it covers a year in which most supplier customers ended up back on Standard Offer Service.

The parts of the market cover different customers and different parts of the bill, so they are shown side by side and never added. In 2025, Standard Offer Service customers paid their utilities an average of 19.46¢ per kWh for supply and delivery together. Suppliers' customers paid the suppliers 13.27¢ per kWh for supply alone, a past average across all their plans, not an offer, and paid their utilities 7.63¢ per kWh for delivery. Delivery-only averages ran from 4.08¢ per kWh at Potomac Edison to 9.21¢ per kWh³ at Pepco. The Maryland retail choice guide covers how shopping works.

Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery19.46¢

Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only13.27¢

Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only7.63¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh by service part, EIA-861 2025. Supply-only and delivery-only averages each cover only part of a bill and different groups of customers; adding them gives only a rough estimate of what a shopping customer paid in total.

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Part of the market	¢/kWh
Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery	19.46¢
Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only	13.27¢
Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only	7.63¢

January is the expensive month

Maryland's use per home peaks in winter. Over the last 12 months it was highest at 1,317 kWh in January 2026 and lowest at 658 kWh in October 2025, a ratio of 2.0 times¹. Electricity is the main heating fuel in 44.1% of Maryland homes (Census, 2025), against 41.8%¹³ nationally.

The price per kWh moved the other way, from 19.59¢ per kWh in December 2025 to 22.36¢ per kWh in October 2025¹: fixed monthly charges spread over more kWh lower the average in heavy months. Bills swing most where winter use is highest: SMECO's average bill in January 2026 was $426.94 on 1,773 kWh, against $144.24 in October 2025; Pepco's in January 2026 was $241.74¹⁴.

826Sep

658Oct

785Nov

1,203Dec

1,317Jan

1,169Feb

870Mar

710Apr

727May

921Jun

1,184Jul

1,091Aug

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Residential kWh sold per customer in each month. The table adds that month's average residential price. Monthly EIA data through August 2026 (released October 23, 2026); months since January 2026 are preliminary.

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Month	kWh per customer	Residential ¢/kWh
September 2025	826	21.10¢
October 2025	658	22.36¢
November 2025	785	21.38¢
December 2025	1,203	19.59¢
January 2026	1,317	20.61¢
February 2026	1,169	20.08¢
March 2026	870	22.20¢
April 2026	710	22.07¢
May 2026	727	21.78¢
June 2026	921	21.84¢
July 2026	1,184	21.41¢
August 2026	1,091	21.40¢

In August 2026, a summer month, the average Maryland home used 1,091 kWh and the average bill was $233.47, against $209.23¹ for the US.

A third of the power comes from outside

Maryland's power plants generated the equivalent of 63% of the state's retail electricity sales in 2025, the 5th lowest ratio in the country; the balance flows in over the regional PJM grid. Of what the state did generate, natural gas produced 42.6%, up 30.1 percentage points since 2015, and nuclear power 39.3%, the 5th highest nuclear share among the states. Coal fell from 38.3% in 2015 to 6.1%; solar reached 3.4%¹⁵.

Natural gasCoalNuclearHydroWindSolarPetroleumOther

Maryland, 2025

Maryland, 2015

United States, 2025

Source: EIA, Net generation by state by type of producer by energy source. Share of net generation by all power plants located in the state (utilities and independent producers), by energy source. Electricity crosses state lines, so this is what the state produces, not exactly what its customers consume. Pumped storage is a net user of power and is left out.

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	Natural gas	Coal	Nuclear	Hydro	Wind	Solar	Petroleum	Other
Maryland, 2025	42.6%	6.1%	39.3%	4.2%	1.8%	3.4%	1.0%	1.6%
Maryland, 2015	12.5%	38.3%	40.3%	4.5%	1.2%	0.3%	0.6%	2.3%
United States, 2025	40.9%	16.6%	17.7%	5.5%	10.4%	6.8%	0.4%	1.7%

Outages, by utility

Maryland customers averaged 184 minutes without power in 2025 including major storms (16th lowest among the states) and 80 minutes excluding them, with 0.96 interruptions per customer. The cheapest of the large utilities had the most outage time: Potomac Edison's customers averaged 399 minutes in 2025, against 104 minutes at Pepco and 175 minutes¹⁶ at BGE.

Pepco (MD)104

Delmarva Power (MD)114

SMECO (MD)173

BGE (MD)175

Potomac Edison (MD)399

Source: EIA-861 2025, reliability. EIA-861 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh is all charges divided by kWh; it is not a tariff rate.

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Utility	outage minutes per customer (all events)
Pepco (MD)	104
Delmarva Power (MD)	114
SMECO (MD)	173
BGE (MD)	175
Potomac Edison (MD)	399

Help paying a Maryland electric bill

Maryland received $84.8 million from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal 2026, $34.89 per occupied home (25th highest among the states); the first release for fiscal 2027 was $76.2 million¹⁷. The help paying your electric bill guide explains LIHEAP and the utilities' own assistance programs.