Potomac Edison net metering in Maryland

Applying to Potomac Edison

What Potomac Edison 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 Potomac Edison’s published guidelines · checked 2026-10-08 · source