By Del. Nicole Williams
Exelon has a story it tells ratepayers, and a story it tells Wall Street. The problem is the two stories don’t add up, and Maryland families are the ones footing the bill.
In front of state regulators, BGE, Exelon’s Baltimore-based subsidiary, speaks in terms of necessity. Every rate request is framed as unavoidable. Every cost increase is propped up with words such as reliability, grid modernization, and customer service. According to BGE, there’s simply no other way.
Then the parent company Exelon, publishes its earnings report.
In its first quarter 2026 results, Exelon confirmed full-year adjusted operating earnings guidance of $2.81 to $2.91 per share and projected earnings-per-share growth near the top end of a 5 to 7 percent range annually from 2025 through 2029. The company also announced $41.7 billion in capital expenditures planned over the next four years, with an expected rate base growth of 7.9 percent. The CEO told investors the company was “on track for another year of consistent operational and financial performance.” In other words, Exelon is delivering strong returns to Wall Street at the expense of household budgets.
Under the monopoly utility model, this is not complicated. Capital gets deployed, regulators approve a return on it, customers pay the bill, and the cycle repeats. Every dollar of capital invested is an opportunity to earn a regulated return. Shareholders win when BGE builds, while ratepayers get the short end of the stick. That sentiment is reflected in recent polling, which found three-quarters (76%) of Americans want stronger government oversight of utility spending.
So, when BGE shows up before the Maryland Public Service Commission to explain why rates must go up, it’s worth asking the question: Is this about necessity, or is it about feeding a $41.7 billion capital deployment machine that Exelon has already promised its investors?
Unfortunately, there is a structural reason why this question doesn’t get asked often enough. Most Americans (58%) don’t know what’s actually driving their bills higher, and that confusion suits monopoly utilities just fine.
Many assume rising electricity costs are about the price of power itself – fuel, generation, wholesale market swings. In reality, electric bills consist of two main portions: (1) supply, which covers the actual electricity generated; and (2) delivery, which covers the infrastructure that transports it to homes and businesses.
In Maryland, the delivery side, especially distribution rates, has been a major driver of recent bill increases. Nationally, utility spending has shifted heavily toward grid infrastructure, with distribution spending rising sharply over the last two decades and transmission spending nearly tripling. Investor-owned utilities are also planning very large capital programs. While some of this spending is necessary, it very well could continue to put upward pressure on rates.
This is exactly why competitive electricity markets matter so much. In the PJM region, which covers Maryland, competitive generators must exercise discipline in a way that monopoly utilities do not. They must offer power at prices the market will actually bear. If they overinvest, overestimate demand, or make poor decisions, shareholders absorb the costs, not ratepayers. That accountability has driven real efficiency gains and delivered genuine savings for consumers over time. But those benefits are undermined when the monopoly delivery system, the wires connecting customers to the competitive market, becomes a vehicle for unchecked cost recovery with returns guaranteed regardless of outcomes.
Exelon mentions affordability. The company’s CEO used the phrase “balancing affordability” in the same earnings release that projected compounding earnings growth through 2029. But you cannot simultaneously promise Wall Street a $41.7 billion capital spend, every dollar of which earns a guaranteed regulated return from ratepayers and ask the public to believe that every rate increase is unavoidable.
BGE serves roughly 1.3 million electric customers and 700,000 gas customers across central and southern Maryland, including in some parts of Prince George’s County and Calvert County. These are families already being affected by rising housing costs and grocery bills. Every dollar taken from a household budget and put toward a utility’s earnings line is a dollar that doesn’t go to school supplies, car repairs, or savings. The stakes are real.
Gov. Wes Moore has positioned his administration as a champion of working families. He has the platform and the standing to ask the obvious question. If Exelon is projecting earnings growth near the top of its guidance range and is doing so thanks to a $41.7 billion customer-backed infrastructure deployment, in what sense is any of this “unavoidable”?
Competitive markets keep power suppliers honest. Engaged, vocal executives keep monopoly utilities honest. Maryland needs both. I know Gov. Moore will hold these monopoly utilities accountable to the ratepayers of Maryland.
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