Posted under Economy
As Marylanders struggle with skyrocketing electric bills, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. is planning what will surely be a very unpopular request: a rate increase for 2010. The Maryland Daily Record has the details:
BGE will wait to file with the Public Service Commission until later this year to request an increase in the rate it charges for the delivery of electricity and natural gas starting in 2010, said Mark Case, the firm’s vice president of regulatory affairs.
Case did not elaborate on the potential size of BGE’s rate request in an interview Thursday, but a settlement with the state requires that distribution rate increases be capped at no more than 5 percent of the distribution rate.
“We’re looking now at 2010, and essentially it’s a situation where we know with the economy and the cold weather we’ve had this winter it’s a tough time for our customers, so we’ve tried to hold out as long as we could,” Case said.
Anger over big electric bills has prompted Sen. James Rosapepe (D) and Sen. E.J. Pipkin, (R) to introduce bill that would re-regulate the electricity market.
Certainly, de-regulation has not brought many benefits to Maryland electricity consumers. But a study issued by the Public Service Commission last December warned again re-regulation as a solution:
[T]he immediate costs of returning to full regulation would be very substantial…
The full re-regulation option will require an unprecedented initial investment, places all risks on retail customers, and could be more difficult as a consequence of the current credit market. No other state has pursued this course.
Instead, the PSC recommended a variety of other potential solutions, including reducing costs by increasing generation capacity with cleaner sources. The commission also suggested creating a new state power authority to mandate (and help finance) the construction of these new generation sources.
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