Category: News and Events

Maryland PSC Decision Reduces Pepco’s First Year Rate Increase by 62%

Posted on July 1, 2024 - News and Events

On June 10, 2024, the Maryland Public Service Commission issued its Order on Pepco’s Application for a Multi-Year Rate Plan which rejected Pepco’s proposed three-year and 9-month MYP and approved a one-year revenue adjustment of $44,629,000, instead of the $117.2 million Increase in revenue sought by Pepco for the first year of its MYP. AOBA advocated for rejection of Pepco’s MYP and approval of a rate increase based on an historic test year.

Specifically, Pepco claimed “cumulative revenue deficiencies of $117.2 million for the 12 months ending March 31, 2025, $160.5 million for the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, $193.2 million for the 12 months ending March 31, 2027, and $213.6 million for the proposed nine-month extension period ending December 31, 2027.”

The Commission’s decision results in a 62% reduction in Pepco’s first year rate increase request, and denies Pepco the further yearly increases listed above.

On June 20, 2024, Pepco filed its Compliance Rates to go in effect for usage on or after July 1, 2024. Compliance rates are expected to be approved by the Maryland PSC in July.  This rate increase was filed to go into effect on April 1st but because of the delay until July/August, Pepco will have to collect their approved increase of $44.29 million in 7 ½ months vs. a traditional 12 months.  Pepco will file a Rider/Surcharge to go in effect from August 2024 through March 2025 to collect the shortfall in revenue. Absent a new rate increase Application from Pepco, the Rider/Surcharge will not be effective after March 31, 2025.

Montgomery County Building Energy Performance Standards

Posted on May 1, 2024 - News and Events

Benchmarking Deadline is June 1st

Benchmarking Deadline is June 1, 2024 for multi-family residential buildings with gross square footage area between 25,000 feet and 250,000 square feet.  This is the first year that multi-family residential buildings of this size need to report their building’s energy usage.  Larger multi-family buildings (>250,000 square feet) began reporting in June 2023 for CY 2022 data.  Beginning in 2024, all buildings in Montgomery County with gross floor area of greater than 25,000 square feet will need to submit their benchmarking data by June 1st annually.

DC Annual Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards for 2021 Published

Posted on July 14, 2022 - News and Events

Attached is the Annual DC REPS report for CY 2021

Some hi-lights

  • Added 2,337 new solar energy systems including 82 community renewable energy facilities (“CREFs”)
  • CREFs now have 26.5 MWs of capacity installed in the District
  • In total, DC added 37 MWs of Solar capacity for a year end total of 191.8 MWs of Solar
  • Wards 5,7 and 8 are the highest solar producing Wards
  • The total cost of compliance was $99.1 million for all suppliers (who in turn collect from members and residents in the commodity portion of the bill)
  • The average price for one DC Solar Renewable Energy Credit was $430 in 2021- the highest in the nation which helps explain why RPS charges on your energy supply charges now comprise ~10% of the total cost 

Annual Report for 2021

Prince George’s County Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) Legislation Dies in Committee Due to Preemption Concerns Raised by AOBA

Posted on July 14, 2022 - News and Events

At its June 23 hearing, the Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee of the Prince George’s County Council voted to hold CB-26-22 indefinitely. The Committee’s action effectively kills the legislation, which would have established BEPS for the following building types:

* Multifamily residential or mixed-use covered buildings equal to or exceeding 250,000 square feet

* Non-residential buildings equal or greater than 50,000 square feet, but less than 250,000 square feet

* Non-residential buildings that equals or exceeds 10,000 square feet, but less than 50,000 square feet.

* Multifamily residential or mixed-use covered buildings equal to or exceeding 250,000 square feet

* Multifamily residential or mixed-use covered buildings equal to or exceeding 10,000 square feet, but less than 250,000 square feet

Montgomery County Interpretation

The decision was based on a legal interpretation by the Montgomery County Office of the County Attorney (OCA) that the legislation is preempted by the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022 (S.B. 528), a statewide climate bill that establishes similar requirements. AOBA submitted a statement for the hearing raising the preemption issue.  The statement read in part: 

“Finally, there is an open question of law related to the viability of both the proposed Prince George’s legislation, as well as the recently passed Montgomery County Bill, specifically, whether the local legislation is pre-empted by Maryland Senate Bill 528, The Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022.  The Office of the County Attorney (OCA) in Montgomery County has offered an interpretation of the pre-emption of state legislation. However, the County Attorney leaves open the potential of the local legislation being challenged in the courts. AOBA has concluded that the pre-emption issue will likely be resolved in court. It is imperative that AOBA ensure that members are not ensnared in a conflicting battle between a state and county law when the State law pre-empts the local legislation.”

AOBA’s Impact

In a big win for AOBA members, the Prince George’s County Office of Law investigated the matter and made the appropriate finding. The decision means Prince George’s County members will not have to comply with two sets of energy efficiency standards, saving housing providers staff resources, time, and money.

Montgomery County Passes BEPS Bill

Posted on April 25, 2022 - News and Events, Uncategorized

On April 19, 2022, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed Bill 16-21- Environmental Sustainability- Building Energy Use Benchmarking and Performance Standards.  The Department of Environmental Protection has until December 2023 to issue the regulations that will govern building energy performance standards. 

This bill comes on the heels of the State legislature passing Senate Bill 528, Climate Solutions Bill – which addresses similar issues at the state level.  The original state bill included language that would have exempted buildings from the State law if their local county enacted similar legislation, i.e. local county regulations would trump the state regulations.  However, this language was stricken from the final state law and there is a question of whether the intent of the General Assembly was to preempt any local legislation by this language change.

The Office of the County Attorney (OCA) believes that this was not a clear preemption and that this does not impact the County’s ability to proceed with its own benchmarking and performance standard measures.

AOBA staff continues to monitor the State and County’s development of BEPS regulations and is working  County officials to ensure industry representation on the regulation advisory taskforce. 

County Staff Report on Bill 16-21

COVID-19

Posted on March 31, 2020 - News and Events

“The COVID-19 health emergency has disrupted life in the District of Columbia, and the Commission is committed to ensuring access to essential utility services for all District residents and businesses.  In response, we have launched a resource page to keep our consumers and stakeholders informed of all utility related response efforts and Commission actions,” stated Willie L. Phillips, Commission Chairman.

For more information, visit the Commission’s COVID-19 resource page at https://dcpsc.org/Coronavirus.aspx

Contact: Kellie Didigu, [email protected], 202-626-5124

The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia is an independent agency established by Congress in 1913 to regulate electric, natural gas, and telecommunications companies in the District of Columbia.

Washington Gas Files $35.2 Million Rate Case in the District

Posted on January 14, 2020 - News and Events

Washington Gas is requesting an overall rate of return of 7.56%, to meet the cost of Washington Gas is proposing a Revenue Normalization Adjustment (“RNA”), which is a monthly billing adjustment that reflects the difference between actual revenues earned by Washington Gas and the level of revenue that the Company is authorized to receive.  Washington Gas states that this RNA is needed and will provide customers with more stable and predictable invoices.  AOBA challenged WG’s RNA proposal in its last rate case (Formal Case No. 1137 and the PSC agreed with AOBA and declined to implement such a charge.

Washington Gas filed its last rate case in the District on February 26, 2016 (Formal Case No. 1137) with rates effective March 24, 2017, but had agreed not to  file any rate cases since that time as one of the Commitments in the Washington Gas Alta Gas merger settlement in May 2018 (Formal Case No. 1142).  As part of that settlement, Washington Gas agreed that it would not file a rate case for 34 months (i.e. no earlier than January 3, 2020).

AOBA has intervened in this rate case proceeding and will keep our members informed as the case progresses.

Formal Case No. 1162