Bill > SB954

This bill, the Affordable Energy Act, requires the Public Service Commission (PSC) to direct electric companies to create a "resource adequacy plan" if the PSC determines there's insufficient electricity supply or if a "price stability event" occurs, which is when electricity market prices become excessively high. This plan must prioritize renewable energy resources and can include plans for large capacity energy resources, defined as generating facilities or storage devices with a capacity of 20 megawatts or more. The bill also allows investor-owned electric companies, which are companies like BGE or Pepco that are regulated by the state and sell electricity, to recover costs and investments for building or acquiring their own generating facilities, including any stranded costs, and to earn a reasonable return on these investments. These costs can be recovered through a surcharge on customer bills, and the rate of return for these facilities cannot be less than the rate of return on their transmission infrastructure. Additionally, the bill modifies rules for "front-of-the-meter" energy storage devices, which are large-scale storage systems connected to the electricity grid, by establishing new pricing schedules for their capacity and requiring that any wholesale market revenue they earn be returned to customers through credits or refunds, while they can keep revenue from energy and ancillary services. The bill also introduces requirements for credit rating assessments for new generating facilities over 2 megawatts built by investor-owned electric companies to ensure they don't negatively impact the company's financial stability.

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https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/SB0954?ys=2026RS