Maryland commercial gas: choice by meter class

Three major systems, three minor ones, and the class that decides

The Public Service Commission's gas fact sheet divides Maryland's gas utilities into majors and minors, and the division matches what the Commission regulates rather than how many meters each company reads. The majors are Baltimore Gas and Electric, Columbia Gas of Maryland and Washington Gas Light; the minors are Chesapeake Utilities, the Easton Utilities Commission and Emmitsburg Gas, which the fact sheet identifies as a UGI Utilities operation. That list matters because choice is not distributed evenly across it. The enrolment report the Commission publishes sorts every utility's accounts into three classes — residential, firm-service commercial and industrial, and daily-metered and interruptible — and it is the class, not the county, that decides whether a supplier may serve an address. The report's eligibility footnote is blunt about the residential side of two systems: residential customers of Chesapeake Utilities and Elkton Gas stopped being eligible for choice from October 2012, under a Commission letter order dated 13 April 2012, and Chesapeake's own figures now include the former Elkton system because the two merged in a Commission case. At Columbia Gas of Maryland the report counts no residential accounts as eligible at all, while thousands of commercial and industrial accounts are.

• Major gas utilities as the Commission lists them: Baltimore Gas and Electric, Columbia Gas of Maryland, Washington Gas Light.
• Minor ones: Chesapeake Utilities, the Easton Utilities Commission, and Emmitsburg Gas (UGI Utilities).
• The Commission's enrolment report classes accounts as residential, firm-service commercial and industrial, or daily-metered and interruptible.
• Residential customers at Chesapeake Utilities and Elkton Gas have not been choice-eligible since October 2012.
• The former Elkton system is now counted inside Chesapeake Utilities after a Commission merger case.
• At Columbia Gas of Maryland the report counts no residential accounts as eligible while thousands of commercial accounts are.

Who already buys from a supplier: the Commission's quarterly count

Because the Commission publishes enrolment by class, participation in Maryland can be read rather than guessed, and the pattern is emphatic: the larger and more closely metered the account, the more likely it already has a supplier. In the quarter ending June 2026 the report counted roughly 22,500 firm-service commercial and industrial accounts served by a supplier out of about 75,500 eligible — very close to a third — against around 6,300 residential accounts out of more than 1.15 million eligible, which is a fraction of one percent. The daily-metered and interruptible class sits at the other end again, with more than eight in ten of those accounts served. The per-utility figures are the ones a buyer should carry into a negotiation, because they measure how much competitive supply actually exists at that utility: Baltimore Gas and Electric's firm-service commercial accounts were around 30 percent enrolled on accounts and around half of the class's eligible volume, Washington Gas Light's were around 32 percent on accounts and around 68 percent of eligible volume, Chesapeake Utilities was the most enrolled at roughly 71 percent of eligible accounts, and Columbia Gas of Maryland the least at around 6 percent. The report also counts the suppliers serving each class, which ranges from a few dozen at the two large systems to a handful at the smaller ones.

• Roughly a third of eligible firm-service commercial accounts statewide are served by a supplier; the residential class is under one percent.
• More than eight in ten daily-metered and interruptible accounts are served by a supplier.
• Washington Gas commercial accounts were about 32 percent enrolled on accounts and about 68 percent of eligible volume.
• Chesapeake Utilities' commercial class is the most enrolled in the state, at roughly 71 percent of eligible accounts.
• Columbia Gas of Maryland's is the least enrolled of the three majors, at around 6 percent of eligible commercial accounts.
• The report lists the number of suppliers serving each class — a direct measure of how much competition a class really has.

How the default commodity charge is set, and why it moves

A Maryland business that does not buy from a supplier pays the utility's own commodity charge, and that charge is a pass-through adjusted on a cycle rather than a fixed tariff rate. The Commission's fact sheet spells out the differences. Baltimore Gas and Electric's adjustment is a Gas Commodity Price Factor calculated monthly and reviewed annually by the Commission, with the unadjusted commodity price based on a City Gate Index Price. Columbia Gas of Maryland runs a purchased gas adjustment based on actual gas cost with a prior-period reconciliation, known as an actual cost adjustment, with rates filed quarterly and expressed in Mcf and broken out by rate schedule. Washington Gas Light assesses a purchased gas charge quarterly, with occasional updates for a specific billing month, reconciled to actual cost annually. The minor companies run a purchased gas adjustment subject to an annual actual-cost adjustment as well. The fact sheet adds the detail that makes the whole thing legible: every utility using an adjustment calculation is subject to a formal hearing before the Commission each year. So the useful question is not what the utility rate is but which cycle the comparison sits on — a monthly factor at one system and a quarterly factor at another are not measured over the same period.

• Maryland's default commodity charge is a pass-through, adjusted on a cycle and reconciled to actual cost.
• Baltimore Gas and Electric's factor is calculated monthly and based on a City Gate Index Price.
• Columbia Gas of Maryland files a purchased gas adjustment quarterly, expressed in Mcf and split by rate schedule.
• Washington Gas Light assesses its purchased gas charge quarterly, sometimes updating it for a single billing month.
• Each utility using an adjustment calculation faces a formal hearing before the Commission annually.
• Compare like cycles: a monthly factor and a quarterly factor do not cover the same period of market prices.

Licensing: what the statute puts behind a supplier's name

Maryland's licensing requirement is statutory rather than contractual. The Public Utilities Article directs the Commission to license gas suppliers and gives it the same authority it holds over electricity suppliers, including the power to revoke or suspend a licence, to impose a moratorium, a civil penalty or another remedy, and to order a refund or a credit to a customer. The same section requires the Commission to adopt licensing requirements and procedures that protect consumers, the public interest and the collection of State and local taxes — which is why the licensing process asks a supplier to demonstrate more than its ability to resell gas. The article's definition of a gas supplier is also worth reading before a sales call, because it reaches aggregators, brokers and marketers, while excluding a gas company to the extent it sells at rates regulated by the Commission. The rules that carry the requirement into practice sit in the Commission's own regulations: COMAR 20.54 for gas supplier licensing and COMAR 20.59 for competitive gas supply. In practice the first check on any offer is whether the company holds a Commission licence, and the Commission's own site publishes the licensing material rather than leaving it to the supplier to represent.

• The Commission licenses gas suppliers by statute and holds the same powers over them as over electricity suppliers.
• Those powers include suspending or revoking a licence, imposing a moratorium or civil penalty, and ordering a refund or credit.
• Licensing requirements must protect consumers, the public interest and the collection of State and local taxes.
• The definition of a gas supplier reaches aggregators, brokers and marketers, not just retail brands.
• Licensing sits in COMAR 20.54; the competitive gas supply rules sit in COMAR 20.59.
• Verify a licence before treating an offer as real; it is the one credential that is published by the regulator.

Firm, daily-metered and interruptible: reading your own class

Maryland's three enrolment classes are not marketing categories — they describe how the utility meters and balances the account, and they explain the participation pattern. A firm-service commercial account is metered on a regular cycle and forecast in the ordinary way. A daily-metered account is read every day, which means the utility and the supplier both know exactly what the site burned, and the site is usually large enough that a supplier can build a firm supply plan around it. Interruptible accounts sit on a tariff that lets the utility curtail supply when the system is tight, which is a different bargain from an uninterruptible one and it is priced accordingly. That is why daily-metered and interruptible accounts are the most enrolled class in the state: they are the accounts whose consumption is measured well enough to contract against. Two practical checks follow for a buyer. First, find out which class the meter is in, because that decides eligibility at some utilities and shapes pricing everywhere. Second, watch the units: the Commission's reports count volumes in dekatherms while a customer's bill is usually expressed in therms, and a dekatherm is ten therms, so a figure quoted in one unit and read in the other is off by a factor of ten.

• Firm service, daily-metered and interruptible describe how the utility meters and balances an account.
• Daily metering gives both the utility and the supplier a measured consumption history to contract against.
• Interruptible service trades a lower delivery charge for the utility's right to curtail when the system is tight.
• That is why the daily-metered and interruptible class has the highest enrolment rate in the state.
• Eligibility can turn on class at some utilities, so confirm it before soliciting offers.
• The Commission reports volumes in dekatherms and bills usually read in therms; one dekatherm is ten therms.

Winter in Maryland: Cove Point, storage and the peak-day question

Maryland's winter gas risk is a deliverability question, and the federal winter assessment supplies the two facts that frame it. The first is national: gas demand over the winter is forecast to exceed production, with the difference drawn out of storage, and storage inventories in the East began the season slightly below the previous year and slightly below the five-year average. The second is local and specific to Maryland: the assessment notes that operators of some LNG export facilities, Cove Point among them, have allowed re-gasified LNG held on site to be delivered into nearby market areas on peak winter demand days, which is a reminder that a terminal built for export can behave like regional supply infrastructure when the weather turns. For a commercial buyer the conclusions are operational. Ask whether the supply contract is firm or interruptible, whether storage is attached to it, whether the account is daily-metered, and what the balancing terms are when a cold snap pushes the site above its nomination. A site on interruptible delivery that also buys indexed supply carries two exposures at once: the price moves with the market and the delivery can be curtailed on the same morning.

• FERC's assessment has national winter demand exceeding production, with storage covering the difference.
• Eastern storage inventories began the season slightly below the prior year and below the five-year average.
• Cove Point in Maryland has seen on-site re-gasified LNG delivered into nearby market areas on peak winter days.
• Firm or interruptible supply is the first question; whether storage is attached is the second.
• A cold snap can push a site above its nomination, so the balancing terms belong in the contract review.
• Interruptible delivery plus indexed supply means price exposure and curtailment exposure on the same day.

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