Summer relief? People’s Counsel asks Maryland utility regulator to halt power shut-offs until Sept. 15

At the onset of another scorching summer, the Office of People’s Counsel filed an emergency petition with the Maryland Public Service Commission on Tuesday asking the utility regulator to halt power shut-offs until Sept. 15.

The office is also asking the commission to waive fees and deposits for customers who had their power cut off but wish to reconnect during the summer heat.

“Extreme heat poses immediate risks to utility customers facing terminations,” Maryland People’s Counsel David S. Lapp said in a news release. “Summer hasn’t even started yet, but Maryland is facing triple-digit heat indexes. Preventing terminations is vital to protect the health of the most vulnerable, including children, older adults, and low-income households that are disproportionately affected by extreme heat because of poor housing conditions and rising utility rates.”

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In the petition, the Office of People’s Counsel — an independent state agency that represents Maryland’s residential consumers of electric, natural gas, telecommunications, private water and certain transportation matters before the Public Service Commission, federal regulatory agencies and the courts — criticized current state standards, which rely on temperature and not heat index, which accounts for humidity, to determine when utilities can shut off power.

In 2023, BGE shut off service for almost 80,000 residential customers—over 10,000 of whom were identified as low-income, according to the Office of People’s Counsel.

The office also asked in the petition that a utility may not terminate service because of nonpayment unless the utility first certifies in an affidavit to the service commission that the termination does not constitute a threat to the life or health of the residential occupants. The office also wants the affidavit to affirm personal contact had been made over the shut-off.