More than 94,000 Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. customers in the Washington area will see their electricity rates rise by 15 percent starting Saturday — instead of the 72 percent approved by the Public Service Commission in March.
The rate is fixed at 15 percent for 11 months. Starting in January, customers will begin to pay back the deferred amount plus carrying charges, or interest, over a 10-year period.
“At the end of 11 months, customers then will have the option of going to full market price, or they can opt into another to-be-created deferral program, with additional cost, of course,” said Constellation Energy Spokesman Rob Gould.
Constellation is the parent company of BGE.
Gould had no details of what the program might entail or how much it might cost.
“There is no program yet,” he said. “It all has to be created by the Public Service Commission.
“The only thing [that] is an absolute right now is 15 percent beginning July 1.”
All consumers are expected to pay market gas and electric prices by January 2008, Gould said.
The 15 percent increase will vary by each customer’s usage, Gould said.
He did not know the average cost for BGE customers.
The deal was set Friday, after lawmakers overrode Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s veto of the rate relief package last week.
The law also fired the state’s five-member Public Service Commission, which is appointed by Ehrlich.
The governor will be allowed to appoint new members, but they must first be approved by state Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller and House Speaker Michael Busch, both Democrats.
The 72 percentincrease would have meant an increase of $743 annually for the average residential customer, according to the state Office of the People’s Council.
The 72 percent raise was set to coincide with the expiration of a freeze on rates imposed under a 1999 electric deregulation law.
cmabeus@dcexaminer.com
