Skip to content
Net Metering Program
← Back to the schedule

Baltimore Gas and Electric net metering in Maryland

Baltimore and central Maryland, including Howard, Harford, Anne Arundel and Carroll counties. The net metering framework comes from state statute (Public Utilities Article § 7-306), and BGE applies it through its own Rider 18, Net Energy Metering.

Type
Investor owned
Accounts
1.3M

What they credit you

Full retail in kilowatt hours; spring surplus paid at the supply rate

Published terms

BGE’s Rider 18 bills you for net energy each month, so a kilowatt hour you send to the grid offsets one you take from it. In a month you send the grid more than you take, you pay the customer charges your rate schedule requires, and the surplus carries forward in kilowatt hours. By default the bank runs to the April billing cycle; what is left is paid within 30 days at the generation or commodity portion of BGE’s rate averaged from the previous May, the supply price rather than retail, or at your supplier’s rate if you buy from one.

Month to month
Kilowatt hours carry forward to the April billing cycle, or indefinitely if you elect it in writing or on a form accepted by the Commission.
Once a year
Paid within 30 days after the April billing cycle at BGE’s average generation or commodity rate. On a supplier, the average generation or commodity rate of the supplier you were with on 31 March, over the time it served you, if that rate is available; otherwise BGE uses the rate paid by its Standard Offer Service customers as a proxy.

Published terms · checked 2026-10-08 · source

Installers serving BGE customers

Pick one. Only the company you choose receives your details, and only that company calls you.

Not sure which to choose?

These are real companies operating in BGE territory. Bold Energy is listed first because it is the company we introduce first. That order is our choice, not a score. The other companies are ordered by reviews, years trading and BBB grade. None of them pays us for placement. Pick the one you want and we will call you to arrange it.

Ordering combines three things we read from primary sources: Google review count and rating, years trading taken from the company’s Better Business Bureau profile rather than its own marketing, and its BBB letter grade. BBB accreditation is shown but never scored, because it is a paid membership rather than a mark of quality.

Check any contractor license yourself at the state register. Do that before you sign anything, with any company, including ours.

What this looks like on a BGE bill

An average Maryland household, against a system sized to cover its year. The energy charge is the part that goes to zero. The fixed monthly charge underneath it is the part that never does, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

Meter readingkWh
Energy charge$202.89
$202.89
We have read this provider’s own tariff. What it still bills you at zero is set out below, with the sheet it came from. The energy line above uses the statewide average. See what they still bill
DirectionReading…

Meter reading falling from 41926 to 41667 kilowatt hours. A 929 kilowatt hour month against 1,188 kilowatt hours produced leaves 0 kilowatt hours billed and 259 banked for next month, so the energy charge falls from $202.89 to $0.00 at 21.84 cents per kilowatt hour.

Maryland average household use, 929 kWh a month, at the current published residential price of 21.84¢ per kWh. Your utility still bills a fixed monthly customer charge that no system offsets, so this is the energy part of the bill, which is the part that goes away.

Maryland’s full retail rate net metering closes to new customers at the earlier of a 3,000 MW statewide cap or 1 July 2027, under HB 1532. The Public Service Commission’s 2025 report found half the cap already used as of June 2025 and expects the pipeline to exceed it, so the cap may well arrive before the date. Systems connected before then keep the current terms until they are decommissioned, expanded, repowered or re-interconnected. New customers after that go into a successor program the legislature requires to pay less.

What your installer should be telling you

If you elect to accrue indefinitely, switching back needs BGE’s approval, which BGE will give if no other request to switch has been made in each twelve-month period from the date of your election; the switch must take place before 1 March to count for that year. The system may not exceed 200 percent of your baseline annual usage; if you do not have twelve months of use, it may be estimated by an agreed method subject to Commission approval. The rider also says residential customers “are required to take service from a standard watt-hour meter to participate”, so ask BGE what that means for your meter before you change rate schedules. Confirm with your utility how much of the 3,000 MW statewide cap remains before you plan around the 1 July 2027 date in HB 1532; the rider is available first come, first served only while the statewide total stays under 3,000 MW.

What BGE bills you anyway

In a month when your production covers everything you use, the energy charge can reach zero. This does not. It is the floor under every bill, and it is the number that decides whether a system pays for itself.

The charge
$10.00 a month
How it is set
Schedule R sets the Customer Charge in three annual steps and the current one is Rate Year 3, effective 1 January 2026: $10.00 a month, with a delivery service charge of $0.04859 per kWh on top of what you use. The earlier columns on the same sheet read $9.30 and $9.65 and are 2024 and 2025. Maryland is deregulated, so this is delivery only and generation is billed by whichever supplier you are on.

Schedule R, P.S.C. Md. E-6 (Suppl. 709), Rate Year 3 effective 1 January 2026 · checked 2026-09-18 · source

Applying to BGE

What BGE itself requires, as distinct from what the state rule requires. Read from its own published guidelines on the date shown.

The closing date is in the statute, in these words
The fiscal note for HB 1532: "End the availability of new contracts or tariffs under the existing net energy metering program at the earlier of (1) the date on which the generating capacity under the program reaches 3,000 megawatts or (2) July 1, 2027."
The replacement is required to pay less
The Commission must approve a successor framework "by order or regulation on or before February 1, 2027" to begin 1 July 2027, and the General Assembly’s stated intent is incentives "less than the incentives provided by the existing program".
The cap may arrive before the date, and community solar is what is eating it
The Public Service Commission’s 2025 report puts installed capacity at 1,537 MW as of 30 June 2025, "51.23 percent of the eligible State cap of 3,000 MW". Its central finding is that the pipeline of proposed but not yet operational projects is projected to exceed the cap: roughly 700 MW awaiting Commission authorization, 1,728 MW sitting in utility interconnection queues and 483 MW accepted but not yet operating. The Commission’s own words are that those pending community solar projects, about 2,911 MW, "nearly exceeds the 3,000 MW statewide cap on its own before accounting for the 1,537 MW already installed". None of that is rooftops. A household in Maryland is racing a queue of commercial projects it has no part in, for a place in a program that closes for everyone at once.
You can choose never to be paid out each spring
Public Utilities Article § 7-306(f)(5) lets a customer of an electric company elect to accrue net excess generation indefinitely instead of taking the annual payment. That matters because the payment is made at the generation or commodity portion of the rate, which is below the retail rate the same kilowatt hour offsets if you keep it as a credit and use it in a darker month. Two conditions come with it: switching back to the annual payment needs the utility’s approval, and whatever is left is paid within 15 days of closing the account, at a value the Commission sets. The Commission reports $8,888,859.35 paid out across Maryland in the twelve months to 30 April 2025. Unless you are consistently generating more than you will ever use, electing to accrue is worth asking about by name.
Six thousand megawatts is a different program’s ceiling
HB 1532 also sets a 6,000 MW limit, and it is easy to read that as the cap on this program. It is not. The 6,000 MW applies to the combined capacity of the existing program and the successor that replaces it; entry to the existing full retail program still ends at 3,000 MW or 1 July 2027, whichever comes first. The bill’s own summary blurs the two, so check which number you are being quoted.
If you get in, you keep it, and the conditions are specific
Existing program participants stay eligible until the system is decommissioned, is modified to increase its output, enters a new interconnection agreement, or is repowered, meaning more than 80% of its DC nameplate capacity is replaced. Adding panels later is one of the four ways to lose it.
Being in the queue counts for something
The Commission is required to prioritize successor program applications from customers who were already in their electric company’s interconnection queue for the existing program when the successor started.
Your own usage sets the size limit
Maryland regulation, COMAR 20.50.10.01, says a net metered system “may not exceed 200 percent of the eligible customer-generator’s baseline annual usage”. Pepco’s and Delmarva’s riders define that as your previous twelve months of use at the time of installation or upgrade, and the BGE, Pepco and Delmarva riders allow it to be estimated, by a method subject to Commission approval, if you do not have twelve months of use. An upgrade is re-tested, and if the upgraded system is over the limit the regulation says the electric company “may discontinue net energy metering”. For a house this is the size limit that matters, not the statute’s 2 MW for an individual system or 5 MW for community solar and meter aggregation.
Under the default, surplus is cashed out each spring at the supply rate
If you do not elect to accrue indefinitely, net excess generation accrues for up to twelve months and is paid within 30 days after the April billing cycle, at the generation or commodity portion of your rate averaged over those twelve months, or your supplier’s generation rate if you buy from one. That is the supply part of the bill without the delivery charges, so banking a large spring surplus is not the strategy it looks like.

From BGE’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-08 · source

BGE net metering questions

Does BGE offer one for one net metering?
Yes. BGE’s Rider 18 bills you for net energy each month, so a kilowatt hour you send to the grid offsets one you take from it. In a month you send the grid more than you take, you pay the customer charges your rate schedule requires, and the surplus carries forward in kilowatt hours. By default the bank runs to the April billing cycle; what is left is paid within 30 days at the generation or commodity portion of BGE’s rate averaged from the previous May, the supply price rather than retail, or at your supplier’s rate if you buy from one. Kilowatt hours carry forward to the April billing cycle, or indefinitely if you elect it in writing or on a form accepted by the Commission.
What does BGE pay for power sent back to the grid?
Full retail in kilowatt hours; spring surplus paid at the supply rate. Paid within 30 days after the April billing cycle at BGE’s average generation or commodity rate. On a supplier, the average generation or commodity rate of the supplier you were with on 31 March, over the time it served you, if that rate is available; otherwise BGE uses the rate paid by its Standard Offer Service customers as a proxy.
Do I need a battery with BGE?
Not for the economics. BGE credits exports at the retail rate, so power you send out during the day comes back at the same value after dark without storage. A battery is still worth considering for outages during hurricane season, but it is an upgrade here rather than a requirement.
How do I find my BGE bill?
Sign in at bge.com. Open My Account, then Billing. Open the latest bill and save the PDF. Or screenshot the summary page. If you cannot get to it, a rough guess at your average monthly amount is enough to start.
Is there a deadline for BGE customers?
Maryland’s full retail rate net metering closes to new customers at the earlier of a 3,000 MW statewide cap or 1 July 2027, under HB 1532. The Public Service Commission’s 2025 report found half the cap already used as of June 2025 and expects the pipeline to exceed it, so the cap may well arrive before the date. Systems connected before then keep the current terms until they are decommissioned, expanded, repowered or re-interconnected. New customers after that go into a successor program the legislature requires to pay less.
What is the catch with BGE?
If you elect to accrue indefinitely, switching back needs BGE’s approval, which BGE will give if no other request to switch has been made in each twelve-month period from the date of your election; the switch must take place before 1 March to count for that year. The system may not exceed 200 percent of your baseline annual usage; if you do not have twelve months of use, it may be estimated by an agreed method subject to Commission approval. The rider also says residential customers “are required to take service from a standard watt-hour meter to participate”, so ask BGE what that means for your meter before you change rate schedules. Confirm with your utility how much of the 3,000 MW statewide cap remains before you plan around the 1 July 2027 date in HB 1532; the rider is available first come, first served only while the statewide total stays under 3,000 MW.