BGE Residential SOS Supply Cost to Rise Nearly 12%, SOS Rates to Rise at Other Maryland Utilities As Well

Residential Standard Offer Service supply costs at Baltimore Gas & Electric in Maryland are due to increase nearly 12% beginning June 1, 2013 under new SOS supply contracts.

Specifically, based on past results and the results of the recent April procurement, the SOS Power Supply portion of residential BGE customer bills will increase approximately 12%. The comparison looks at the entire June 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014 SOS year versus the prior year, though retail rates for the period June 1, 2013 to September 30, 2013 were already published based on last October's procurement.

Retail rates for the period starting October 1 were not immediately available and will be available when utilities submit their updated tariffs.

At Pepco, the SOS Power Supply portion of residential customer bills will increase approximately 6%.

At Delmarva Power, the SOS Power Supply portion of residential customer bills will increase approximately 3%.

Potomac Edison, which is on a different SOS procurement schedule, had already completed procurement of its residential SOS supplies for the period starting October 1, 2013. In the April procurement, it did procure residential SOS supplies for the period starting June 1, 2014, but additional supply still needs to be procured for that period, so future costs remain unknown.

For Type I customers, new SOS contracts will lead to a supply cost increase ranging from 8.5% at BGE down to 3% at DPL.

For Type II customers, new SOS contracts will lead to a supply cost increase ranging from 18-40% depending on utility, but reflect the expected change resulting from transitioning from shoulder to summer pricing under the quarterly SOS contracts (unlike residential and Type I contracts where prices are blended over 24 months, and changes take on more significance since seasonality is not a factor).

For the April procurement, there were eight winning bidders, an increase of one versus last October's procurement (the most recent procurement with comparable products).

April's procurement saw a total of thirteen bidders, which is one more bidder than in October

For the entire April RFP, there were approximately 5.9 MW bid for every MW needed. For the Residential and Type I products alone, the number was also 5.9 to 1. These metrics represent a modest increase from last October's RFP, which saw 5.7 MW bid for every block needed overall and 5.8 MW bid for every Residential and Type I MW needed.

All prices in the April RFP came in below the Price Anomaly Threshold.