Shopping for electricity supply in Maryland

Who can shop, and who counts the shoppers

Every residential customer of Maryland's five large distribution utilities can choose where its electricity supply comes from. The utility keeps the poles, wires and meter and still delivers the power; what changes is who sells the electricity itself. A customer who does nothing stays on Standard Offer Service (SOS), the utility's default supply. The Maryland Public Service Commission runs the official shopping site, MD Electric Choice, with the list of licensed suppliers.

The Public Service Commission's monthly Electric Choice Enrollment reports, which cover the four investor-owned utilities and SMECO, show how quickly residential shopping shrank. In December 2024, 275,272 residential customers bought supply from an electric supplier, 11.6% of residential accounts. By December 2025 the count was 10,977 (0.46%), and in September 2026 it was 1,955 (0.08%¹). The reports give counts, not reasons.

EIA's annual census describes the same year from a different angle. Utilities reported 137,184 homes buying from 50 suppliers during 2025, 4.8%² of residential customers: a figure for a year that started with about one account in nine on a supplier and ended with under half of one percent, so it should not be ranked against other states.

By EIA's 2025 count, shopping was uneven across the state: 6.3% of BGE's residential customers bought from a supplier, 5.0% at Pepco, 3.2% at Delmarva Power and 2.3% at Potomac Edison. At SMECO, the Southern Maryland cooperative, the share was 0.4%: 591 delivery-only homes out of 163,451² on its lines.

Standard Offer Service is the price to compare

According to the Public Service Commission, utilities buy SOS electricity from wholesale suppliers through competitive bidding regulated by the Commission; residential and small commercial bids are held twice a year and contracts go to the lowest bidders. The Commission requires each utility to publish its "supply price comparison information, also referred to as the SOS price", for summer months, winter months and a weighted annual average. That supply price, from your own utility, is the number a supplier's offer has to be set against.

What SOS customers paid in total is a different number. Full-service residential customers paid their utilities an average of 19.46¢ per kWh in 2025, supply and delivery together: average revenue per kWh, meaning total charges divided by kWh used, not a tariff. By utility the full-service averages ranged from 15.44¢ per kWh at Potomac Edison to 21.81¢ per kWh at Delmarva Power, with BGE at 20.19¢ per kWh and Pepco at 21.74¢ per kWh². Those totals include delivery, so they cannot be held against a supplier's supply-only price.

The 2024 law changed what suppliers may charge

Senate Bill 1 of the 2024 General Assembly session rewrote the rules for residential supply. The Commission's summary on MD Electric Choice lists the main changes:

• A price cap. Residential electric supply contracts entered into, or renewed, on or after January 1, 2025, are capped at the utility's trailing 12-month average residential SOS rate. Each utility must post that average on its website.
• Twelve months at most. A residential supply contract may not run longer than 12 months.
• Green power has its own ceiling. Supply marketed as green, renewable, carbon-free or similar may not cost more than a Commission-approved price, set each year from the territory's most recent 12-month SOS average plus renewable energy certificate and premium components (Commission order of December 30, 2024).
• A Do Not Transfer list. A customer can ask the utility to put the account on it, and suppliers then cannot market to or enroll that account.
• Licensing. Salespeople must pass a course and exam, and supplier licenses come up for renewal every three years.

The same page says that as a result, some suppliers decided to stop offering supply to residential customers, which is why the Commission's site may show fewer offers than before.

Two bills for supplier customers

The law also ended purchase of receivables, the arrangement under which the utility paid suppliers what customers owed them. In an order of December 30, 2024, the Commission found dual billing the only workable method until utilities and suppliers agree on a new one. A Maryland home that buys from a supplier therefore receives one bill from the utility for delivery and a separate bill from the supplier for the electricity.

SOS customers and supplier customers: 2025 averages

EIA splits Maryland's 2025 residential market into three groups that cover different customers and different parts of the bill. They are shown side by side and should not be added together:

• utility full-service (SOS) customers: 19.46¢ per kWh for supply and delivery;
• supplier customers, paid to their suppliers: 13.27¢ per kWh for supply only, a past average across all plans and contracts during the year, not an offer;
• the same supplier customers, paid to their utilities: 7.63¢ per kWh² for delivery only.

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.

Show the numbers

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¢

The supply-only average is the one that can be set beside other states. In nearby states, supplier customers in Pennsylvania paid 12.92¢ per kWh for supply in 2025, in Delaware 15.72¢ per kWh, in New Jersey 17.85¢ per kWh and in the District of Columbia 20.87¢ per kWh². The table puts each state's default-service, supply-only and delivery-only averages side by side.

The year matters for reading Maryland's figure: 2025 was the first year in which the SB1 cap applied to new and renewed contracts, while customers still on older contracts were not yet covered by it. The supplier group behind the supply-only average also shrank through the year, from 275,272 accounts at the start to 10,977¹ at the end by the Commission's count, so that average reflects fewer and fewer homes as the months went on.

Delivery stays with the utility, at its own price

Switching supply does not change delivery. As the Commission's bill guide puts it, the supplier's rate replaces the SOS rate and the delivery-related charges stay the same. Those charges differ widely by utility. In 2025, delivery-only revenue per kWh from residential customers who bought supply elsewhere was 4.08¢ per kWh at Potomac Edison, 6.17¢ per kWh at SMECO, 7.40¢ per kWh at BGE, 9.06¢ per kWh at Delmarva Power and 9.21¢ per kWh² at Pepco.

Potomac Edison (MD)4.08¢

SMECO (MD)6.17¢

BGE (MD)7.40¢

Delmarva Power (MD)9.06¢

Pepco (MD)9.21¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Delivery charges only: what the utility billed customers who buy supply elsewhere, divided by their kWh. Not comparable with bundled prices.

Show the numbers

Utility	delivery-only revenue per kWh (residential)
Potomac Edison (MD)	4.08¢
SMECO (MD)	6.17¢
BGE (MD)	7.40¢
Delmarva Power (MD)	9.06¢
Pepco (MD)	9.21¢

The direction of change differed too. From 2024 to 2025, BGE's delivery-only average went from 6.49¢ per kWh³ to 7.40¢ per kWh (+14.0%), SMECO's changed by +11.2%, Delmarva Power's by +3.4% and Pepco's by +2.7%, while Potomac Edison's changed by −1.0%². A supplier contract has no effect on them.

Comparing an offer, step by step

1. Find the supply line on your bill. The Commission's bill guide asks shoppers to separate supply charges from delivery charges first. Only the supply part is open to competition.
2. Get your utility's SOS price. Use the utility's published supply price comparison information, and note whether the offer runs through summer, winter or both.
3. Check the cap. For a standard (non-green) residential contract signed or renewed since January 1, 2025, the price may not exceed the trailing 12-month SOS average your utility posts.
4. Check the term. No residential contract may exceed 12 months; know what happens when it ends.
5. Expect a second bill. With purchase of receivables ended, the supplier bills you directly.
6. Verify the supplier. The supplier list on the Commission's site shows who is licensed.

Maryland prices over the last 12 months

Supply choice sits inside a rising market. Over the last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026), Maryland's residential customers paid an average of 21.18¢ per kWh, 17.4% above the US average, and the average rose 12.7% against the 12 months before, the 3rd highest⁴ increase among the states. The Maryland state page covers prices, bills and the five utilities in detail; the regulated vs deregulated guide explains how supply choice works across the country.