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Suppliers File Renewed Motion To Stay End To Residential UCB/POR
The Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA), CleanChoice Energy Inc., and IDT Energy, Inc. (Supplier Coalition) filed a renewed motion with Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) to stay its 2024 order ceasing residential UCB with POR on December 31, 2025, and prohibiting utilities are not requiring utilities to offer UCB beyond December 31, 2025.
“[t]he Commission’s decision to terminate residential utility consolidated billing (“UCB”). Terminating residential UCB without a suitable replacement goes way beyond the letter and spirit of Senate Bill 1 and is not an “unintended consequence” of the legislation. Instead, the Commission is exercising its discretion to implement measures that unnecessarily eliminate residential electricity and natural gas choice in a way that SB1 did not contemplate, and at a time when prices are increasing and Maryland consumers want choice and the opportunity to save money.”
“[F]rom January 2024 through September 2025, over 230,000 electric residential shopping customers had their choice revoked and were returned to utility standard offer service (“SOS), reducing residential shopping by 317% – from 12.8% statewide to a meager 3%.”
“[T]he Commission’s decisions implementing SB1 have more than contributed to this mass exodus from choice and savings. These unfortunate decisions are discretionary and not guided by the SB1 statutory language. The pending termination of residential UCB effective December 31, 2025, is but one example where the Commission exercised its discretion beyond the statutory language, to the detriment of Maryland consumers. A second example is when the Commission approved Pepco’s, Delmarva Power’s, and WGL’s requests for enormous increases to the residential purchase of receivable (“POR”) discount rates to the tune of 202.4%, 181%, and 99.6%, respectively.7 The Commission’s enrollment reports reflect significant drops in June 2025 when the letter orders were entered.8”
“Yet a third example is the Commission’s approval of artificially and arbitrarily low price caps for green products that no supplier can beat and would require a supplier to spend resources and time seeking Commission approval to offer a green product that exceeds the price cap. 9 These decisions, and others, are discretionary decisions that go beyond the SB1 requirements and mandates. They are unnecessary and unreasonable daggers to the residential customers that chose to take service from retail suppliers and to the suppliers that invested in the Maryland market with the goal of bringing the benefits of competition and savings to residential customers.”
“As the Supplier Coalition has stated numerous times since the adoption of SB1, the legislation contemplates the end of POR, not the end of UCB altogether which amounts to a knockout punch for residential retail competition. Even the Commission acknowledged that dual billing – which would be the only billing method for suppliers and their customers if UCB is terminated – is a “regression of a positive market for customers or retail choice providers and thus is not a preferred option.”
“Rather than terminate UCB altogether and abandon consumers during a period of rising prices, the Supplier Coalition requests that UCB be allowed to continue until a viable solution is reached. While the suppliers negotiated in good faith months ago as directed, including attempting to arrange a meeting of EDI/XML experts and other discussions, it is unfair to place this burden on the suppliers when it is not their systems in play. A viable non-POR UCB program that is a reasonable alternative to what has been discussed from an operations perspective can be obtained with coordination between suppliers, utilities and Staff. Finding a solution to continue UCB will benefit residential customers by maintaining the opportunity for them to find products they want.”
RESA CleanChoice Energy & IDT Energy (11/14/2025)
(Second Renewed Motion To Stay)
RESA CleanChoice Energy & IDT Energy
Notice (10/09/2025)
PC65 (07/23/2024)
(Accounts Receivable Related To Residential Electric and Gas Supply)
