Maryland might be the most underappreciated deregulated energy market in the country. The state opened up electricity choice back in 1999, it operates within PJM Interconnection, and four major utilities provide Standard Offer Service (SOS) rates that competitive suppliers beat for commercial accounts all day long. And yet? Most small and mid-sized businesses in Maryland are still sitting on their default rate, blissfully unaware they're overpaying. Let's fix that.

Maryland's Utility Territories

Four utilities carve up the state:

• Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) — The big one. Serving the Baltimore metro and central Maryland, about 1.3 million electric customers. If you're in Maryland, there's a decent chance this is your utility.
• Pepco — Covering Montgomery and Prince George's counties, including the D.C. suburbs. Some of the densest commercial territory in the state.
• Delmarva Power — The Eastern Shore.
• Potomac Edison (FirstEnergy) — Western Maryland.

Each utility's SOS rate comes from competitive auctions run by the Maryland Public Service Commission. These rates change every few months for commercial accounts, and they're perfectly fine as a wholesale-level average for the aggregate load. But that's the key word: average. Your business isn't average, and your rate shouldn't be either.

Why Commercial Buyers Should Look Beyond SOS

Here's what's actually going on with SOS rates: they're designed for simplicity, not savings. The auction pools all commercial load together and spits out a rate that reflects average risk and average cost. It's the energy equivalent of buying off the rack when you could get custom tailored for less.

A competitive supplier, on the other hand, can price your account based on your actual usage pattern. Think about it — a hotel with heavy weekend loads, a manufacturer running 24/7, and a government office that shuts down at 5 PM are completely different animals from a supplier's perspective. They'll price each one differently, and that difference works in your favor.

How much savings are we talking about? In our experience, Maryland commercial customers who switch to competitive supply save 10-18% on generation costs. The biggest wins tend to come from:

• Multi-location businesses: Bundle multiple meters into one contract and you've suddenly got volume. Suppliers love volume, and they'll sharpen their pencils accordingly.
• Predictable load profiles: Consistent usage = lower risk for the supplier = lower rates for you. Simple math.
• Larger accounts: Once you cross 100 kW of demand, you're in the commercial rate classes where supplier competition gets fierce. That's where the real deals happen.

PJM Capacity and Transmission in Maryland

Like every PJM customer, Maryland businesses pay capacity and transmission charges on top of their energy supply costs. And in Maryland's corner of PJM, both have been trending upward as the grid goes through generation transitions and infrastructure investments.

Capacity costs come from PJM's Base Residual Auction and depend on your Peak Load Contribution (PLC) — basically, how much power you were using during PJM's system peak hours. Here's the good news: Maryland's summer peaks tend to align with PJM's system peaks (think air conditioning blasting during July and August heat waves), which means peak demand management strategies can meaningfully reduce your capacity obligation.

Transmission costs? Those just pass through from the utility and keep going up as PJM invests in grid infrastructure. You can't avoid them by switching suppliers, but you should understand them so nothing on your bill catches you off guard.

The D.C. Metro Factor

Here's something that actually works in Maryland's favor: the D.C. metro area. Montgomery County, Prince George's County, the I-270 corridor — all packed with federal contractors, data centers, healthcare systems, and massive commercial real estate portfolios.

Why does that matter to you? Because all that concentrated commercial load attracts aggressive supplier competition. Data centers in particular have drawn major supplier interest into the Maryland market, and the competitive pricing pressure they create trickles down to everyone else in the same utility territories. Rising tides, in this case, actually do lift all boats.

Natural Gas in Maryland

Maryland's gas market is deregulated too. BGE's Customer Choice program and similar programs at the other utilities let you pick a competitive gas supplier. Pricing follows the eastern PJM gas trading hubs.

Winter pipeline constraints affect Maryland gas prices, though nothing like the chaos you see in New England. Still, if you're a commercial gas customer, a fixed-rate contract locked in during summer shoulder season will almost always beat the utility's default rate and kill the winter price uncertainty. It's one of those no-brainer moves that too many businesses still aren't making.

What We Recommend for Maryland Businesses

I'll be honest: Maryland is about as straightforward as deregulated markets get. SOS versus competitive supply? Competitive wins for commercial accounts, consistently. The process is well-regulated, transparent, and not particularly complicated.

So here's my advice: stop overthinking it. Send us your bills, let us run a competitive solicitation, and see what comes back. In Maryland, the conversation almost always leads to savings. And the conversation itself? Costs you nothing.