BALTIMORE (WBFF) — With mounting concern and frustration over high energy bills, Baltimore Gas and Electric CEO Tamla Olivier addressed the issue in an exclusive interview, pointing to rising supply costs.
“We’re equally as frustrated, we feel our customers’ pains, and I live in Maryland, I don’t get a discount on my BGE bill, so I recognize that people are struggling right now, and it is top of mind for us,” Olivier said.
While residents have been faced with energy bills anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $500 or more, Olivier said affordability was a key focus for the utility, referencing the Customer Relief funds as well as a proposed plan put before the Maryland Public Service Commission, which once in place, could provide a few hundred dollars in relief over the course of a year.
“We put a proposal in front of the Public Service Commission here in Maryland in Fall of 2024 and that would look like a 6% discount for a customer who had gas and electric, and if you only had one or the other, it would be 3%, which equates to about $200 to $800 a year on the bill, which is pretty significant for folks,” Olivier said. “You know, we did just hear back from the PSC, basically saying that the proposal was approved. We’re kind of a year past, which means we kind of missed a few seasons there, but we’re hopeful, with partnership with the PSC in the state, that we are able to hopefully push to get this in place before the summer so folks can start benefiting from that discount.”
“What we are doing internally is we’re looking at every single thing that we spend, every dollar counts,” Olivier added. “So we have worked to pull hundreds of millions of dollars off of our system, meaning those projects that are still critical projects, because we’re driving the car with engine light on, but we said of those critical projects are there ones that we can push out two years, three years, four years, just to kind of provide some relief to our customers.”
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While many advocates, lawmakers and other officials have argued that distribution rates have been rising at a disproportionate rate, which is based on utility spending, Olivier pointed to supply prices as a major contributing factor of rising energy bills.
“Supply costs are really a challenge here in Maryland, specifically because we have a low supply resource adequacy issue in the state. And when I say that, what that means is we are importing 40% of our power currently, and we’re relying on power from other states,” she said.
While BGE does not control supply prices, when asked about the increasing distribution rates, which BGE does control, she said, “They have been increasing at a rate that is well below the supply price.”
“I would say everything is increasing when you look at childcare, when you look at healthcare, when you look at how much you’re paying at the grocery store, when you look at housing, and I would say, all of those things are increasing,” Olivier said. So yes, have the distribution costs been increasing? Yes. What I would say, it’s at an amount that I would say is not reasonable or prudent, I would say no.”
At the end of last year, the Maryland Public Service Commission only approved about half of the funding BGE requested as part of the multi-year rate plan. Commissioners approved about $77 million dollars in costs BGE can recoup from ratepayers, out of the more than $152 million that was requested. Through the order, a significant portion of BGE’s spending was called into question.
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“The PSC also has to take a look at all things,” Olivier said. “I would say that over the years, one of the things that is unfortunate is the Maryland PSC is ranked last across the country, only tied with Connecticut, and I think they have had to make some decisions relative to the spend, and some of those decisions have been placed 100% on affordability. But there are reliability things I think really excited about Chair Barve in his new role, and I think he will be looking at what that balanced approach around affordability as well as reliability looks like.”
In the latest earnings report, Exelon, the parent company of utilities like Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), Delmarva Power and Pepco, reported a financial performance that “exceeded expectations.” According to the earnings report, BGE’s net income increased from $527 million in 2024 to $578 million in 2025. In the fourth quarter of 2025, BGE’s net income increased to $180 million from $175 million during the same time period in 2024. A press release indicated the increase was “primarily due to distribution rates associated with updated recovery of investments to serve customers and impacts of the multi-year plan reconciliation, partially offset by an increase in interest expense.”
Advocates and lawmakers have been critical of BGE’s infrastructure spending, arguing it has driven up costs for customers. This comes as lawmakers have raised questions about gas pipeline spending, the Baltimore Peninsula Project, as well as a current legislative push to allow utilities to generate energy in the state. Officials with BGE have long argued the spending is necessary to replace aging infrastructure and maintain a safe and reliable system. When it comes to the possibility of generating more energy, Olivier said it could help address the supply issue Maryland is currently dealing with.
“I would say residents will start seeing real relief when we start generating more power in the state,” she said.
“And once again, 95% of our profits go right back into the system. Go right back into those investments,” she added. “And so while we have seen an increase in distribution costs, there is value to that, like I talked about earlier, that you’re going to see value in the number of outages. You’re going to see faster restoration times because we’re using more technology on the system. You’re going to see less gas leaks, less emission better for the environment. You’re going to see us doing things, improving the system, so that we can add on new power sources.”
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