In many areas around the nation, people are paying for power they do not get, but the residents of Maryland will no longer submit to those excessive charges. The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) issues a ruling on Wednesday that will prohibit utility companies from collecting under a bill known as the Bill Stabilization Adjustment rider (BSA). The bill was previously used to permit utility companies to charge its customers for days when they were left with a power outage.
Last week, the Maryland PSC ordered that utility companies, including PEPCO, BGE, SMECO, and DELMARVA, would no longer be permitted to recover the losses during major storms. This means, when power goes out to 10 percent of a utility’s customer base for more than 24 hours, the utility company is not allowed to regain cost associated with the outage.
