Switch Maryland Electric Supplier: Fees, Timeline, and Rates
Maryland lets many homes and small businesses pick who sells the electricity on their bill while the local utility still owns the wires. That split is why switching a supplier feels both simple and strangely bureaucratic: you are changing a contract and a set of line items, not changing the poles outside your house. This guide walks through what actually changes, how long it takes, which fees bite, and how to read rates against the utility default—so you can decide whether shopping, staying put, or waiting out a contract makes sense.
What you are switching (and what stays the same)
In restructured states, customers can often choose an alternate electricity supplier—sometimes called retail choice or customer choice—while the distribution utility still delivers power to the meter and charges for that delivery service, according to the ¹. Maryland is on EIA’s list of jurisdictions where retail choice has been available to investor-owned utility customers.
Practically, your relationship with electricity has two layers. The utility delivery account covers metering, poles, wires, storm restoration, and regulated distribution rates. The generation or supply relationship is either Standard Offer Service (SOS)—the utility’s default generation product—or a licensed retail electric supplier you select. ² puts it bluntly: switching suppliers changes who sells you the energy commodity and the contract terms on your bill, not who delivers power. Outages still go to the utility; the supplier change is about price and contract, not reliability hardware.
That same split shows up nationally. EIA’s explainer on delivery notes that in some states customers can buy electricity directly from a power marketer while a local utility delivers it, and that local utilities operate the distribution system regardless of who generates the power (³). If you are moving into a vacant address, you still need an active utility delivery account before a supplier enrollment can post. Starting supplier service is not a substitute for opening delivery service.
Who can shop, and how Maryland fits the national map
EIA reports that in 2022 retail choice was available for all utility customers served by investor-owned utilities in the District of Columbia and 13 states, including Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and others (¹). Choice is generally an IOU-customer story; cooperatives and municipals may or may not participate. Texas is a different animal: customers of utilities connected to the grid managed by ERCOT are required to choose a retail electricity provider, rather than opting into shopping from a utility default (¹).
Maryland also sits among states that have implemented community choice aggregation (CCA) programs customers can opt into or out of (¹). The ⁴ describes CCA as local governments procuring power from an alternative supplier while customers still receive transmission and distribution from their existing utility, and notes participation is voluntary, with most CCAs using opt-out enrollment when a community launches a program. EPA lists Maryland among states that authorize CCAs. If a municipal notice lands in your mailbox alongside a private marketer’s flyer, read both: your “default” supply path may already be an aggregation product unless you opted out.
National participation is uneven. EIA’s Today in Energy analysis found that in 2021 about 26% of eligible U.S. customers participated in their state’s retail choice program—about 13.2 million residential electric customers (⁵). Marketers respond to renewals and neighbor comparisons; your job is to separate urgency from value.
On the ground in Maryland, territory still matters. A ⁶ notes that Baltimore homes receive delivery through BGE while Maryland’s deregulated market lets households choose a competitive retail supplier for the supply portion of the bill. Pepco Maryland, Delmarva Power in Maryland, Potomac Edison, and other host utilities change which SOS price and which suppliers attach to an address. Use your ZIP and utility name before you treat any offer as “Maryland-wide.”
Timeline: from signup to the first supplier-priced bill
Enrollment is the easy part. Billing change follows the utility’s clock.
⁷ says online enrollment through a comparison platform often takes about two minutes, and the new plan typically takes effect at the start of the next billing cycle—usually within one to two weeks depending on the utility’s meter read schedule. The same FAQ stresses that switching suppliers does not interrupt electricity service; the local utility continues delivery on the same lines. ² maps the phases: compare and contract the same day, supplier validates and sends the switch, the utility updates the account for the next billing cycle, and the first supplier-priced supply shows on the first bill after the switch date.
That lag matters if you are racing a rate change. Enrolling after a meter read can push the new supply price into the following cycle. Moving into a home flips the order: open or transfer utility delivery service first, then enroll a supplier if you want one (²).
Federal consumer-protection guidance has long treated disclosure and switching friction as core design problems. The Department of Energy’s ⁸ emphasizes that Terms of Service should contain material terms including pricing method and fees, and notes that some states require a short right of rescission so customers can cancel without penalty after examining the contract. FTC staff comments on retail electricity switching costs likewise treat early termination fees as a real friction that can deter switching even after a contract-expiration notice has gone out (⁹). Maryland’s day-to-day calendar is utility-cycle driven; the national lesson is the same: the switch is not complete when you click enroll—it is complete when the billing system and contract terms catch up.
Fees that matter (and ones that usually do not)
The fee that most often wrecks a “savings” story is the early termination fee (ETF) on a fixed-term supply contract. ¹⁰ reports that early termination fees can range from $50 to $300 or more depending on the provider and contract length, and that monthly base or minimum-usage fees of roughly $5 to $15 can hide in the fine print. Usage-threshold penalties, renewable surcharges, and late-payment fees also show up. The same piece notes that Ohio and Maryland have disclosure documents analogous to Texas’s Electricity Facts Label, so shoppers should ask for full pricing details—not just the headline cents-per-kWh.
¹¹ puts exit fees in the same “red font” neighborhood as the rate itself, because an early exit or a move can erase a few tenths of a cent in advertised savings. Its FAQ advice is practical: you can still compare plans while under contract, but check ETF terms before switching, because savings only offset a fee if usage and remaining term support the math (⁷).
Maryland’s energy-assistance rules create an important exception. Beginning July 1, 2023, unless the Commission has approved a supply offer, a third-party retail supplier may not charge a termination fee to households that received energy assistance during the previous fiscal year, under Section 4-308 of Maryland’s Public Utilities Article as reported by ¹². Workgroup communications materials likewise required suppliers to affirm they are prohibited from charging an early termination or cancellation fee to energy-assistance households dropped to SOS under that law (¹³). If you receive Office of Home Energy Programs assistance, ETF math is different—and shopping options may be limited to PSC-approved products priced at or below SOS.
What about a utility “switching fee” for every move to a supplier? ² notes that Maryland coverage of the competitive market has focused more on billing mode and price rules than on a discrete per-switch utility surcharge—but still advises reading the utility tariff and supplier summary for pass-through charges. Brokers may be free to customers because suppliers pay a commission; that does not make the supply contract free of fees (⁷).
FTC competition analysis has long argued that consumers do better when they can readily switch among suppliers and when advertising is paired with uniform disclosures of terms, prices, and attributes (¹⁴). Translate that into household language: if a salesperson cannot state the ETF, monthly fees, and renewal path in writing, you do not have a complete price.
Rates: SOS, supplier offers, and how to compare without fooling yourself
Start with what “average price” means. EIA’s ¹⁵ shows an average retail price of 15.04 cents per kWh across end-use sectors, with about 59.0 million MWh of total retail sales—split between roughly 32.0 million MWh of full-service provider sales and 27.1 million MWh of energy-only provider sales. That energy-only slice is the competitive-supply footprint. EIA’s Electric Power Annual table of average prices by end-use sector lists Maryland’s 2024 residential average at 17.86 cents per kWh (¹⁶). Those statewide averages include generation, transmission, distribution, taxes, and fees rolled into delivered electricity; they are not the same as the itemized supply rate on a competitive offer sheet (¹¹).
Your decision anchor inside Maryland is usually SOS—the utility’s default generation price for your class and season—not last year’s flyer and not the all-in statewide average. ¹⁷ stresses comparing offers to the SOS or price-to-compare on your bill, and notes that utilities now publish average rates billed by each retail supplier. In December 2024 Pepco Maryland data cited there, supplier averages ranged from about 4¢/kWh below to 11¢/kWh above the default service average, with some suppliers averaging at least 10¢/kWh above SOS; Delmarva saw at least one supplier averaging about 16¢/kWh above SOS. A teaser rate is not your neighbor’s realized average.
SOS itself moves. The switching guide cites filed BGE residential Total SOS Rate examples of 9.887¢/kWh for October 2022–May 2023 and 12.118¢/kWh for October 2024–May 2025 (²). Shopping is a comparison to a moving benchmark.
Fixed versus variable is the next fork. Fixed-rate plans lock a price per kWh for a contract term; variable-rate plans can change with market conditions (⁷). Longer terms can look cheaper until an ETF or a renewal clause appears. DOE’s consumer-protection blueprint flags early-termination penalties and late fees as material terms that belong in disclosure, alongside deposit and collection policies (⁸).
A workable comparison method, adapted from ¹¹: pull 12 months of kWh from your utility portal; multiply by the offer’s supply rate and compare to what you paid for supply—not the whole bill; spread any monthly fee across typical kWh; map what happens if you do nothing (SOS, CCA, or another default); and read the exit clause before celebrating a tenth of a cent.
Industry analyses sometimes advertise large potential savings when many offers sit below the price to compare. ¹⁷ cites a consultant estimate that Maryland consumers could have saved more than $39 million in October 2023 alone, with 179 offers below the PTC that month. Treat that as a market-wide illustration, not a personal guarantee—your usage, term, fees, and timing decide the outcome.
Protections when energy assistance is in the picture
Maryland’s energy-assistance rules reshape both eligibility and fees. ¹² reports that beginning July 1, 2023, unless the Commission has approved a supply offer, a third-party retail supplier may not provide electricity or gas to households that received energy assistance during the previous fiscal year, may not renew such contracts outside approved offers, and may not charge those households a termination fee. An approved offer must commit to charging at or below the utility SOS (or gas commodity) rate for the term. Supplier contracts must include a statement that the supplier cannot charge a termination fee to energy-assistance households.
Utility and supplier notice language developed for the rollout told customers that if they receive OHEP assistance (or received it in the previous fiscal year) and a supplier returns them to SOS, the supplier may not charge a cancellation or other early termination fee because of that change (¹³). Longer fixed contracts signed before the effective date could continue to term under grandfathering described in the same coverage, but renewal options tighten afterward.
If affordability—not shopping—is the real problem, federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and weatherization resources can help with the delivery bill you keep no matter who sells supply; ¹⁷ points readers toward those federal programs when the challenge is paying the utility rather than picking a marketer. Shopping while on assistance is a compliance exercise first and a cents-per-kWh exercise second.
What recent Maryland retail reforms changed for bills and offers
Maryland’s 2024 retail market reform law (often discussed as Senate Bill 1) reset residential shopping rules that shoppers still bump into in 2025–2026. According to ², Governor Wes Moore signed SB 1 in May 2024. Core residential provisions described there include an SOS-linked price cap for many non-green residential offers (generally no higher than the trailing 12-month average SOS rate for the utility territory as of the contract date), a maximum initial term of 12 months for many residential plans, an end to purchase-of-receivables (POR) treatment for residential receivables that pushes many customers toward dual billing, and new salesperson licensing and compensation restrictions.
Billing mechanics are the part households feel. Historically, many choice customers saw supplier charges on one consolidated utility bill. Under the reform timeline summarized by WattKarma, new enrollments and renewals from January 1, 2025 generally must use dual billing (a separate supplier bill) unless a narrow grandfather applies, and many grandfathered fixed-price consolidated arrangements were set to unwind through the end of 2025 (²). Ask before you enroll: will you receive one bill or two, and when does that change?
The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel has also pressed for clearer supplier website disclosures—including cancellation and early termination penalties, contract termination procedures, and late-payment fee amounts—as regulators implement additional disclosure authority (¹⁸). That agenda matches the older federal advice: switching markets only work when fees and renewals are visible before the handshake.
One practical caveat from mid-2025 reporting summarized in ¹⁷: PSC staff told commissioners there was effectively no residential supply market making new offers at that point, with complaints from residents who could not find offers or were dropped when suppliers exited. If the shelf is empty, staying on SOS until comparable contracts return is a rational default—not a failure to shop.
A decision checklist for homes and small businesses
Before you authorize a switch, gather a recent utility bill with account number, service address, and at least several months of kWh; write down your current SOS or supply line item; and confirm your utility territory (¹⁷). Verify the supplier’s legal name and that you are signing a supply contract, not confusing delivery charges with generation charges. Ask, in writing: Is there a monthly base or minimum-usage fee? What is the ETF and when does it apply? Fixed or variable? What happens at renewal? Will billing be consolidated or dual? Are transmission and distribution charges included in the quoted rate, or only the supply slice (¹⁰)?
Small-business meters use the same arithmetic—rate times kWh plus fees—but load shape, demand charges, and multi-site lists can change which offers appear. Commercial enrollments should add peak demand and signatory authority to the packet (¹⁷). Residential SB 1 caps and POR rules do not automatically map onto every C&I contract; still benchmark against SOS and read the exit clause.
If you live in a fully regulated state without retail choice, this checklist still helps you read a bill: separate delivery from generation, watch riders, and treat any door-to-door “rate reduction” claim with skepticism unless your state actually allows competitive supply. Where choice exists—Maryland, Ohio, parts of the Northeast, or mandatory shopping in much of Texas—the winning move is the same. Compare the full contract to the real default, time the enrollment to the next meter cycle, and never let a headline rate drown out an ETF.
Bottom line: switching a Maryland electric supplier is a regulated change of supply service on top of the same utility delivery account. Expect fast enrollment, a billing-cycle delay before the new supply price appears, and no power interruption. Fees matter most when you break a fixed contract or ignore monthly adders. Rates only “beat SOS” if they beat SOS after fees, renewal rules, and your actual kWh—checked against disclosures you can keep, not a pitch you heard once.