Maryland Renewable Electric Plans: Premium at 1000 kWh
If you are shopping electricity in Maryland and a supplier pitches a 100% renewable plan, the friendly label is only half the story. The other half is arithmetic at the usage level you actually live with. Most households do not think in megawatt-hours; they think in monthly bills. 1,000 kWh per month has become the practical middle anchor for that translation—not because every home uses exactly that much, but because it is a round, mid-size benchmark that makes premiums visible: the extra dollars you pay for renewable supply above the default you would have received by doing nothing.
This guide is for Maryland residents and small businesses comparing, switching, or renewing supply offers—plus readers in regulated states who want to understand how choice markets price green products. It focuses on renewable retail plans, what “premium” means in dollars at 1,000 kWh, and how state rules changed the residential green market after SB 1.
Why Maryland shoppers benchmark renewable plans at 1,000 kWh
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is one kilowatt of demand sustained for one hour. Your supply charge scales with kWh; so does the value of any per-kWh premium. When marketers quote ¢/kWh, multiplying by 1,000 kWh yields a supply-side estimate near $10 for every 1¢/kWh—before delivery riders, taxes, and monthly fees.
Maryland does not use Texas-style Electricity Facts Labels with mandatory 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 kWh average-price rows. Still, brokers and comparison sites routinely normalize offers to 1,000 kWh so a condo using 600 kWh in April and a rowhouse using 1,100 kWh in August can compare the same fee architecture. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes state average retail prices in cents per kWh—these are realized all-in averages, not a single supplier quote, but they sanity-check whether a postcard rate is in the right universe (¹).
1,000 kWh is a decision lens, not a prediction. Pull twelve months of usage from your utility portal; if your median month is 750 kWh, model that too. If summer peaks hit 1,400 kWh, run the same plan at both bands. The premium question is always: At the kWh I actually use, what extra supply dollars does the renewable product cost versus Standard Offer Service (SOS)?
Maryland retail choice: supply you pick, wires you keep
Maryland restructured retail electricity so many customers can choose a retail electricity supplier (also called a power marketer) while the distribution utility continues to deliver power and maintain the grid (²). The supplier you select does not replace your local wires company; it replaces—or competes with—the utility’s default generation supply product.
EIA’s 2024 Maryland Electricity Profile shows how large competitive supply already is: about 59.0 million MWh of total retail sales, split between roughly 32.0 million MWh from full service providers and 27.1 million MWh from energy-only providers—customers buying supply competitively with delivery still from the utility (³). The statewide average retail price across all customer classes was 15.04¢/kWh in that data year (³).
Participation is another story. EIA’s analysis of early choice programs noted residential participation in Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware had not exceeded 4%, with little residential momentum in several Northeast choice states (⁴). Low participation does not mean offers are irrelevant; it means many households still ride default SOS and never model a renewable premium at all.
Territories matter. Offers are keyed to your electric distribution company—commonly BGE, Pepco Maryland, Delmarva Power, Potomac Edison, or SMECO. A renewable plan priced for Baltimore’s BGE footprint may not exist for a Frederick Potomac Edison account. Licensed comparison platforms such as WattKarma advertise Maryland among their markets and instruct shoppers to enter a ZIP to see plans in your utility area (⁵; ⁶).
What counts as renewable in Maryland
Three layers often get conflated:
1. Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Maryland first enacted an RPS in 2004, raised requirements over time, and in 2019 increased the target to 50% renewable energy by 2030, with carve-outs for solar and offshore wind (⁷). Compliance is a supplier obligation; it does not automatically mean your home’s electrons are literally wind-powered.
2. Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs represent the environmental attributes of 1 MWh of renewable generation and can be bought bundled with supply or separately (⁸). Electrons on the grid are mixed; REC retirement is how marketers substantiate claims.
3. “Green power” under SB 1. For residential customers, Maryland law now treats marketed green products separately from ordinary supply. The Public Service Commission (PSC) defines green power to include energy or RECs marketed as clean, green, 100% renewable, 100% wind, and similar claims (⁹). A supplier cannot use those labels on residential offers unless the product meets minimum REC quantities—at least 51% of supply or 1% above the applicable annual RPS requirement, whichever is higher—and uses RECs eligible for Maryland’s RPS (⁹).
Voluntary green power nationally remains a slice of total sales: about 164 million MWh procured voluntarily in 2019, roughly 4% of U.S. retail sales, with growth driven by businesses and community choice more than mass residential switching (¹⁰). Maryland’s statutory floor is tightening residential claims even as voluntary demand grows elsewhere.
Consumer Reports warns that RECs have real value and that contracts may transfer RECs away from the customer in ways that undermine the environmental story you thought you bought—read contracts, not slogans (¹¹).
Price context before you pay a green premium
Renewable plans compete against Standard Offer Service (SOS)—the utility’s default supply price for customers who do not choose a marketer. SOS is your price to compare benchmark for supply, though delivery charges still apply regardless of supplier.
EIA’s latest Table 5.6.B (year-to-date through the current reporting window) shows Maryland residential average retail prices at 20.84¢/kWh versus 18.44¢/kWh in the prior-year period, commercial at 17.65¢/kWh versus 14.08¢/kWh, and an all-sectors average of 15.95¢/kWh versus 11.75¢/kWh (¹). Those figures blend supply and delivery; they are not identical to SOS supply energy, but they frame how expensive Maryland bills have become while you evaluate a green markup.
For a tighter SOS anchor, trade press tracking BGE filings illustrates how volatile default supply is. BGE’s Schedule R residential energy rate (supply and capacity, excluding transmission and SOS admin components) was filed at 11.689¢/kWh for October 1, 2025 through May 31, 2026, up from 11.420¢/kWh for summer 2025 (¹²). Indicative total SOS generation rates for BGE residential customers moved higher when transmission and capacity updates stacked on—reaching roughly 14.146¢/kWh in one filed scenario for summer 2025 (¹²). The lesson for premium math: compare renewable supply to the correct SOS line item in your territory and season, not a national blog average.
The Department of Energy notes that green pricing programs through utilities often ask customers to pay a small premium above standard supply to support renewables (⁸). In competitive Maryland, the premium instead appears as the spread between a supplier’s all-in supply offer and SOS—plus any monthly admin fees—evaluated at your kWh.
Delivery charges still scale with 1,000 kWh
Even when supply is renewable, transmission and distribution riders apply. BGE’s bypassable transmission update example raised the Schedule R residential transmission rate from 1.682¢/kWh to 2.322¢/kWh effective June 1, 2025—about 0.64¢/kWh, or roughly $6.40 per 1,000 kWh, independent of whether your supply is green (¹²). Premium comparisons that ignore delivery can mis-rank plans when SOS and competitive supply move in opposite directions.
SB 1 green-power rules and the PSC price cap
SB 1 (2024) reshaped Maryland’s residential retail market: price caps tied to trailing SOS, shorter contract limits, stricter marketing rules, and a new regime for green power offers. For residential customers, suppliers may sell green power only at a PSC generic price or a supplier-specific price approved by petition (⁹).
In November 2025, the PSC set the annual green power price cap as the trailing 12-month average SOS rate in the customer’s utility territory plus a green adder derived from the Tier 2 alternative compliance payment (ACP) price of $15 per MWh (¹³).
Staff’s illustrative formula works like this:
- Take the green percentage in the product (for example 51%).
- Subtract that year’s total RPS requirement (Staff used 40.5% for 2026 in the example).
- The difference is the Green Power Premium Factor (GPPF)—10.5 percentage points in the example.
- Multiply GPPF by the $15/MWh Tier 2 ACP to get the Green Product Premium (GPP) allowed atop trailing SOS (¹³).
The PSC also directed suppliers offering residential green power to retire all RECs in an approved green product into a PJM GATS subaccount accessible to the Commission (⁹).
Critically, regulators acknowledged a data gap: no green product offers appeared to be available on the Maryland Electric Choice website, and apparently none earlier in 2025, leaving the market without lived pricing feedback when the cap was set (¹³). Premium math is therefore partly structural for residential shoppers—even while rules define what suppliers may charge when products return.
The premium at 1,000 kWh: a worked comparison
“Premium at 1,000 kWh” should mean: extra supply dollars for the renewable product minus what SOS supply would cost for the same 1,000 kWh, before delivery riders. Fees and taxes still matter on the printed bill, but isolating supply stops a 1¢ renewable markup from hiding inside a 5¢ delivery swing.
Step 1 — Baseline SOS supply at 1,000 kWh (BGE example)
Using BGE’s filed Schedule R energy rate of 11.689¢/kWh for October 2025 through May 2026 (¹²):
SOS supply energy ≈ 11.689¢ × 1,000 kWh = $116.89 (energy/capacity component only; transmission, SOS admin, and other riders add separately).
If you instead benchmark against an indicative total SOS generation rate near 14.146¢/kWh for a summer period (¹²), the same 1,000 kWh implies about $141.46—roughly $24.57 higher before any renewable premium because the benchmark moved, not because the electrons turned green.
Step 2 — PSC-permitted Green Product Premium at 1,000 kWh
Using Staff’s 51% green product example with 2026 RPS 40.5%:
- GPPF = 51% − 40.5% = 10.5%
- GPP = 10.5% × $15/MWh = $1.575 per MWh (¹³)
Because 1,000 kWh equals 1 MWh, the regulated GPP component in that example is about $1.58 per month on top of trailing SOS—not automatically $15 per month. The $15/MWh figure is a multiplier base tied to Tier 2 compliance costs, not a flat per-kWh green fee unless the product’s GPPF differs in an approved filing.
Convert to cents per kWh for intuition: $1.575 / 1,000 kWh ≈ 0.16¢/kWh of allowed green increment under that specific cap illustration—before supplier petition pricing, administrative fees, or a higher green percentage raising GPPF.
Step 3 — Translate any supply spread to dollars at 1,000 kWh
When a live supplier quote appears in your ZIP, the premium is the difference in all-in supply ¢/kWh versus the SOS line you are replacing, multiplied by usage, plus any monthly admin fee:
Monthly supply premium ≈ (Renewable ¢/kWh − SOS ¢/kWh) × 1,000 kWh + (Renewable fees − SOS fees)
Example using only the cited BGE energy anchor: if a marketer’s all-in supply energy price is 1.5¢/kWh above the 11.689¢/kWh SOS energy rate, the usage-driven premium is 1.5¢ × 1,000 = $15.00 per month on energy—an order of magnitude larger than the $1.58 PSC GPP illustration, which is a regulatory cap component, not a market quote. Always reconcile against the contract PDF, not a teaser line.
Step 4 — All-in bill context at 1,000 kWh
EIA’s 20.84¢/kWh Maryland residential average blends delivery, taxes, and usage patterns across the state (¹). A rough $208 supply-plus-delivery mental model at 1,000 kWh helps spot outlier marketing, but your bill will diverge with riders and season. Your renewable premium lives in the supply slice you control by switching; delivery still flows through the utility tariff.
| Comparison point | ¢/kWh input | Supply $ at 1,000 kWh (energy focus) |
|---|---|---|
| BGE Schedule R energy (Oct 2025–May 2026) | 11.689 | ~$116.89 |
| Indicative BGE total SOS generation (summer filing) | 14.146 | ~$141.46 |
| PSC example GPP adder (51% green, 2026 RPS) | +~0.16 on energy rate | ~$1.58 |
| Hypothetical +1.5¢/kWh above SOS energy only | +1.5 | +$15.00 vs energy anchor |
How to shop and verify a renewable offer
- Confirm choice applies. Investor-owned utility customers may have retail options; cooperatives and municipal utilities often differ (²).
- Pull twelve months of kWh and note seasonal peaks before trusting a 1,000 kWh shortcut.
- Identify SOS/price-to-compare for your class and season from your utility’s posted tariff pages.
- Use a licensed comparison path—utility lists, state resources, or brokers such as WattKarma that compare multiple suppliers with ZIP-level filtering (⁵).
- Read the contract for REC ownership, renewable percentage, term, early termination fees, and pass-through clauses (¹¹).
- Model three usage bands—80%, 100%, and 120% of your median month—to see if fees punish low-use months.
- Reconcile the first bill against your worksheet; delivery lines should look familiar even when supply vendor changes.
For commercial accounts, SB 1’s residential green-price cap does not govern your contract the same way, but REC quality and RPS eligibility still matter when a broker pitches “100% renewable” for a storefront or small office (⁶). Run the same 1,000 kWh translation on general-service tariffs if your usage clusters near that band; use your actual interval data when demand charges apply.
2025–2026 market reality and bottom line
By June 2025, PSC Staff described “no residential supply market at this point,” with suppliers not making new offers and consumers reporting they could not find offers online or were dropped when suppliers exited (¹⁴). That environment collided with SB 1’s tighter residential rules and the PSC’s observation that green products were absent from the state choice site (¹³).
Practical takeaways:
- Premium at 1,000 kWh is a supply-side spreadsheet exercise: SOS benchmark versus marketer quote, plus monthly fees, at the kWh you actually use.
- Maryland’s regulated green cap can keep the PSC-calculated GPP small in Staff examples, but competitive spreads above SOS can still be material—compare live numbers when they exist, not labels alone.
- Renewable portfolio law pushes the grid greener over time; a voluntary green plan is a separate purchase decision with separate REC mechanics (⁷; ⁸).
- If no licensed green product serves your ZIP today, track SOS changes and re-run the 1,000 kWh math when offers return—not signing a door-to-door claim you cannot verify.
Maryland lets you choose who sells supply; it does not let you opt out of physics or delivery infrastructure. At 1,000 kWh, a renewable premium is whatever extra supply dollars you pay beyond the default—measured honestly, season by season, on the same meter your utility already reads.