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From Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) Notice: 

[ *** ] Effective December 31, 2025, the Joint Utilities will no longer provide Utility Consolidated Billing (UCB) services to third-party suppliers for residential accounts ending the gradual phase-out set forth by the Maryland Public Service Commission (“Commission”) in Order No. 91463.

The Joint Utilities have worked in good faith with the supplier community to establish a mutually agreeable non-POR framework via a workgroup established by Staff. The Joint Utilities appreciate Staff’s efforts to mediate the negotiations; however, the meetings were ultimately unsuccessful and are no longer being scheduled. The Joint Utilities have received no sign of interest from the supplier community in resuming negotiations, and the residential market space has drastically changed over the last several months. As reported throughout 2025 in the market share reporting provided separately by each utility, the Joint Utilities continue to see a decline in residential supplier participation, with suppliers dropping residential customers. This leaves the future state of the residential market uncertain at best.

Given the lack of a non-POR UCB replacement, the Joint Utilities are moving forward with plans to cease offering UCB services on January 1, 2026, for the residential class as instructed under Order No. 91463. With a focus on affordability, the Joint Utilities are looking to implement as few system changes as possible to comply with 2024 Senate Bill 1’s (“SB1”) requirement to stop purchasing supplier receivables, while aligning with Commission’s directive that all fixed-price/fixed-term POR UCB residential choice contracts end on December 31, 2025.

The Joint Utilities plan to effectively end UCB for residential customers as follows: 

• Begin communications with suppliers in the coming weeks to remind them that all residential customers must be switched to dual billing or returned to electric Standard Offer Service or gas Sales Service prior to January 1, 2026. The Joint Utilities will provide individualized detailed timelines to suppliers that clearly identify the dates by which each utility must receive the relevant EDI or XML request to ensure all customers are switched to dual billing or returned to the utility’s default commodity service. 
• Implement rejection logic into their systems to ensure no new residential UCB enrollments or switches are permitted.
• Under Code of Maryland Regulations (“COMAR”), the Joint Utilities are only permitted to drop a customer from a supplier under two circumstances: (1) when the customer is enrolled with another supplier; and (2) when contacted by a customer because their cancellation request has not been effectuated by their supplier.  The Joint Utilities will be reliant on suppliers to drop all remaining customers or switch their customers to dual billing before January 1, 2026, in compliance with Order No. 91463. The Joint Utilities are willing to provide Commission Staff and/or the Commission with a list of suppliers and the associated customers who remain on UCB billing for enforcement. Additionally, the Joint Utilities could also manually drop any remaining UCB customers back to electric SOS and gas Sales Service if provided with a Commission order that directs such action and provides a reasonable lead time to accommodate the request. Any such order should also provide that the Commission is granting a limited waiver of any COMAR provision or tariff provision that conflicts with this directive. Note that a manual drop order received after November 2025 or with a directive to start dropping customers too close to the end of 2025 could see drop and POR usage billing activity into 2026.
• The Joint Utilities will work with suppliers on a case-by-case basis to evaluate and correct any reinstatements. Reinstatements are caused by customer accounts which were stopped and later reactivated for reasons such as cancelled moves and account closing in error. The Joint Utilities will run periodic reporting to identify accounts reinstated under UCB but will also rely on the timely due diligence of suppliers to identify the accounts, drop the accounts, and coordinate with the respective utility to modify effective dates to ensure compliance with SB1.
• In accordance with long standing billing practices, cancel/rebill adjustments and any delayed bills from periods prior to 2026 will be billed like for like (original bill type at time of usage) under POR where applicable.

The Joint Utilities believe that the aforementioned path to discontinuing residential UCB will allow for residential POR to organically end as the COMAR permitted adjustment periods are exhausted while limiting the financial impact to customers from system upgrades in addition to rejection logic. Any required deviations from this plan resulting in billing system modifications have the potential to be costly and to take months to program and implement. [ *** ]

Notice (10/09/2025)
PC65 (07/23/2024)
(Accounts Receivable Related To Residential Electric and Gas Supply)