Maryland Pepco Electric Choice: Compare Rates at 1000 kWh

If you live in Pepco's Maryland territory — Prince George's and Montgomery counties plus parts of the D.C. metro — you have a choice about who sells you electricity. Pepco still owns the wires, reads your meter, and restores outages. But for the supply portion of your bill, you can stay on Pepco's default Standard Offer Service (SOS) or sign with a licensed retail electric supplier.

That split matters when you compare rates. A supplier's advertised cents-per-kWh price is almost never your whole bill. Delivery charges, public-policy riders, and seasonal rate changes still flow through Pepco. The practical question most households ask is simpler: At roughly 1,000 kWh of monthly usage, what would I pay for supply — and is a third-party offer actually cheaper than staying put?

This guide walks through how Maryland electric choice works for Pepco customers, why 1,000 kWh is a useful comparison point, what the current SOS benchmark rates look like, and how to run the math without comparing apples to oranges.

How Maryland splits your Pepco bill

Maryland restructured its electricity market years ago. In restructured states, customers may buy generation from electricity marketers while the local utility continues delivering power over its distribution system (¹).

Think of it as two jobs on one bill:

• Supply (generation): The commodity priced in cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This is what you shop when you switch suppliers.
• Delivery (distribution): The poles, wires, outage response, and metering Pepco still operates. Local electric utilities operate the distribution system that connects homes and businesses to the grid (²).

Full-service utilities historically sold bundled energy and delivery. In choice states, other providers — electricity marketers — sell supply to customers of full-service utilities, which deliver that power (¹). Pepco remains your delivery company no matter who supplies your electrons. Pepco customers can still choose their own retail electric supplier (³).

If you do nothing, you remain on Pepco's filed Standard Offer Service generation rates — the default supply benchmark published in Maryland tariff filings (⁴). That SOS price is what marketers mean when they ask whether they can beat "the utility rate."

Why 1,000 kWh is the right comparison anchor

You will not find a Maryland equivalent of Texas's Electricity Facts Label with mandated 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kWh price points. Maryland suppliers present offer sheets and contract summaries instead. Even so, 1,000 kWh is a sensible yardstick for Pepco-area households.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that a residential electric-utility customer averaged about 899 kWh per month in 2022 (⁵). One thousand kWh sits just above that national monthly average — close enough to represent a typical occupied home, yet round enough to make mental math easy.

Using a fixed usage level also isolates the rate from the noise of weather swings. Electricity prices are usually highest in summer when total demand is high because more expensive generation sources are added to meet load (⁶). A hot July and a mild April can swing monthly kWh dramatically. Comparing offers at 1,000 kWh lets you judge the contract's unit price before your personal usage distorts the picture.

The comparison is intentionally narrow: supply cost at 1,000 kWh, not your projected total Pepco bill. Maryland's average residential retail price — which reflects revenues collected per kWh sold — was 22.07 cents/kWh in April 2026 (⁷). That statewide average helps you see how supply shopping fits inside a larger bill, but it is not a substitute for reading your supply line item.

Small-business meters use the same math

For Schedule GS Type I small-commercial accounts, filed summer 2026 generation SOS is $0.10675/kWh and the October 2026–May 2027 all-in charge is $0.12285/kWh (⁸; ⁴). At 1,000 kWh, multiply those supply rates by usage, add any supplier fees, and compare only the supply stack — not delivery charges that Pepco still bills.

Pepco's Standard Offer Service and the price to compare

When marketers talk about beating "Pepco's rate," they mean the SOS generation charge — sometimes called the price to compare. It is the supply benchmark, not a forecast of your total monthly bill.

Pepco's filed SOS rates move on a seasonal schedule and include administrative charges that change over time. Recent filings reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com illustrate the pattern:

Summer 2026 (June 1 – September 30, 2026): For standard Schedule R residential customers, Pepco Maryland's generation SOS kilowatt-hour charge will be $0.10764/kWh before add-ons. That figure excludes transmission, the procurement cost adjustment (PCA), and the SOS administrative charge (⁸).

A subsequent filing revised the all-in residential SOS kilowatt-hour charge — including the administrative charge — to $0.11168/kWh for June through September 2026, after the SOS admin charge decreased effective with June 2026 bills (⁴).

Winter 2026–27 (October 1, 2026 – May 31, 2027): The residential SOS kilowatt-hour charge, including the admin charge, is filed at $0.12670/kWh — about 13% higher than the revised summer rate of $0.11168/kWh (⁴). Rates remain subject to PSC approval.

Two details buried in those filings matter for shoppers:

1. SOS is not one flat number all year. Maryland utilities file different generation charges for summer and winter periods. A supplier beating winter SOS by a penny may still lose in summer if your contract term spans both.
2. The headline SOS charge excludes some bypassable components. Transmission and PCA reconciliation can sit outside the simple kilowatt-hour charge quoted in summer filings (⁸). When you compare, mirror what your bill labels as "generation" or "supply."

Worked example: supply costs at 1,000 kWh

Here is the arithmetic Pepco-area shoppers should run before signing a supplier contract. Multiply the supply rate in cents or dollars per kWh by 1,000. Add any flat monthly fees the supplier discloses. Compare that total to SOS supply at the same usage — not to your entire Pepco bill.

Those figures come directly from filed SOS kilowatt-hour charges (⁴).

Now layer in a hypothetical supplier offer. If a marketer quotes 10.5¢/kWh fixed for 12 months with no monthly fee, supply at 1,000 kWh costs $105. Against summer SOS of $111.68, that saves about $6.68 on supply for that month. Against winter SOS of $126.70, the savings widen to about $21.70.

Reverse the scenario. A variable offer that averages 13¢/kWh in winter costs $130 at 1,000 kWh — roughly $3.30 above the filed winter SOS benchmark, before fees.

This is why a single advertised rate can look brilliant or terrible depending on which SOS season you are in. Run the multiplication for each season your contract will cover.

What supplier offers look like in the real market

Filed SOS is only half the story. Retail suppliers set their own prices, and those prices can change based on contract terms you agree to — unlike the filed default service tariffs utilities publish for a given season.

In December 2024, Pepco filed reports showing each retail supplier's average residential rate. At Pepco, those supplier-specific averages ranged from 4 cents/kWh below the average default service rate to 11 cents/kWh above it (⁹). Fourteen of more than 50 suppliers serving Pepco residential customers had an average rate below SOS that month. Two suppliers averaged at least 10 cents/kWh above SOS (⁹).

Translate that spread to 1,000 kWh:

• 4¢/kWh below SOS: At an 11.168¢ SOS benchmark, a supplier averaging 7.168¢/kWh would cost about $71.68 in supply — roughly $40 less than SOS for that month.
• 11¢/kWh above SOS: At the same benchmark, a supplier averaging 22.168¢/kWh would cost about $221.68 in supply — roughly $110 more than SOS.

Those illustrations use the December 2024 average billed spread, not a promise of current offers. They show why comparison shopping can reward diligence — and why a bad contract can punish complacency.

Maryland has been pushing more supplier transparency. The Maryland Office of People's Counsel has proposed requiring residential energy retailers to post monthly rates for each product and the corresponding utility rates for the same period, plus FAQs clarifying that suppliers may not offer variable rates except for limited seasonal adjustments (¹⁰). Until those rules fully land, treat marketing copy skeptically and read the contract summary.

Licensed brokers and comparison sites also operate in Maryland. The Maryland Public Service Commission licenses brokers that help consumers compare prices and switch suppliers (¹¹). Brokers can simplify shopping, but the math still comes back to your disclosed supply rate times your actual kWh.

How to compare an offer sheet without getting fooled

Maryland supplier offers are not the entire per-kWh world you live in; they are usually a quote on the supply slice. EIA's state average retail prices, by contrast, are derived from utility revenues divided by kWh sold — an all-in delivered cost that can differ from itemized tariff lines (⁷). Keep your latest Pepco bill handy when you read an offer.

Step 1 — Pull your real usage. Download 12 months of kWh from Pepco's portal if you can. If your household averages 750 kWh in winter and 1,200 kWh in summer, a 1,000 kWh comparison is a midpoint — useful, but not gospel. EIA's ~899 kWh national monthly average is a sanity check, not a substitute for your meter (⁵).

Step 2 — Identify the supply line on your bill. Find what you actually paid for generation/supply last month. That historical supply spend is the right comparison target — not the total bill that still funds wires and programs.

Step 3 — Normalize the offer to 1,000 kWh. Multiply the proposed supply rate by 1,000. Add monthly fees. If the rate is tiered, use the tier that applies at 1,000 kWh.

Step 4 — Compare to the correct SOS window. Match the supplier's contract start date to Pepco's summer or winter SOS charge from the table above (⁴).

Step 5 — Read contract mechanics, not slogans. Fixed versus variable pricing matters. OPC has pushed for clearer disclosures and limits on variable-rate products beyond narrow seasonal adjustments (¹⁰). A teaser rate that jumps after 90 days can erase savings calculated at 1,000 kWh.

Step 6 — Check contract length and exit terms. A rate that beats SOS for three months but locks you into an above-market year two is a common trap. Early termination fees can swallow supply savings calculated at any usage level.

In some states, public service commissions fully regulate prices; in others, generation prices are unregulated while transmission and distribution remain regulated (⁶). Maryland's supply market is competitive; delivery is still regulated. That is why switching suppliers changes one bill slice — not the whole stack.

Delivery rates still move — and switching does not change that

Shopping supply does not immunize you from delivery rate changes. The Maryland PSC approves Pepco's distribution revenue requirements separately from SOS generation filings.

In 2024, the PSC rejected a Pepco multi-year rate plan and instead authorized a $44.6 million revenue increase for one year. The commission expected that decision to raise Pepco's electric rates for the average residential customer in Maryland by $5.72 per month, or 3.5% (¹²). That increase hits delivery — the portion you cannot switch away from.

At 1,000 kWh, delivery costs depend on Pepco's tariff distribution riders, not on your supplier choice. When you model savings, subtract supply-only differences. If a supplier saves you $8/month on generation but delivery rises $6/month, your net benefit is $2 — not $8.

EIA's Maryland residential average of 22.07¢/kWh in April 2026 implies a roughly $220.70 monthly bill at 1,000 kWh if that average applied uniformly (⁷). Your supply component at filed winter SOS ($126.70 at 1,000 kWh) would be a large share of that illustrative total, with the remainder covering delivery, transmission, taxes, and policy charges. Exact splits vary by account; supply shopping alone cannot optimize the entire bill.

Decision checklist for Pepco-area shoppers

Use this before you enroll with a retail supplier:

1. Confirm you are in Pepco-MD territory. Electric choice rules apply across much of Maryland, but SOS benchmarks are utility-specific. Pepco's filed rates above do not translate to BGE or Delmarva accounts.

1. Calculate supply at 1,000 kWh and at your actual trailing average. The round number helps compare offers; your real average kWh determines true savings.

1. Benchmark against the right SOS season. Summer and winter SOS differ by more than a penny. A contract crossing October 1 needs both calculations (⁴).

1. Verify the rate type. Fixed-rate stability versus variable exposure is the biggest risk lever. Historical supplier averages at Pepco ranged from 4 cents/kWh below to 11 cents/kWh above SOS in December 2024 (⁹).

1. Add fees before comparing. A 0.2¢/kWh advantage disappears behind a $15 monthly customer charge at 1,000 kWh — an extra 1.5¢/kWh when usage is exactly 1,000.

1. Remember delivery is separate. Supply savings can coexist with delivery increases approved by the PSC (¹²).

1. Use licensed channels. Whether you shop through a licensed broker or a supplier directly, insist on a completed contract summary before you authorize a switch (¹¹).

1. Re-shop on renewal. Supplier averages below SOS in December 2024 did not guarantee the same ranking a year later (⁹). Mark your contract end date and rerun the 1,000 kWh math.

The bottom line

Maryland Pepco electric choice gives you leverage on the supply portion of your bill — but only if you compare offers on the same footing. At 1,000 kWh, filed residential SOS supply ranges from about $112/month in summer 2026 to about $127/month in the following winter, using Pepco's latest Maryland filings (⁴). Retail suppliers have billed averages from several cents below to double-digit cents above that benchmark (⁹).

Run the multiplication. Read the contract. Separate supply from delivery. And compare against the SOS window your enrollment date actually hits — not whichever season makes the marketer's flyer look best. That is how 1,000 kWh becomes a useful decision tool instead of a marketing gimmick.