Moore aims to boost MD energy capacity, aid utility customers

Gov. Wes Moore dropped legislation Tuesday aimed at modernizing Maryland’s electric grid and providing direct rebates for utility customers as the state continues to struggle with energy generation.

“Energy policy is about more than megawatts and transmission corridors — it is about whether Maryland families can afford to live in their homes,” Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement. “That’s why our administration is stepping up to deliver real relief, focusing on driving down the cost of utility bills for Marylanders, and investing in local projects that make energy more reliable and affordable.” 

Moore’s Lower Bills and Local Power Act would utilize $200 million from Maryland’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund, $100 million of which would go directly toward ratepayers’ utility bills in the fall.

The rebates under Moore’s bill would be in addition to those approved last session under the 2025 Next Generation Energy Act sponsored by Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City, and House Speaker emeritus Adrienne A. Jones, D-Baltimore County.

Approximately $10 million of the $200 million from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund would go to the Maryland Department of Transportation to identify ways that high-voltage transmission lines and battery storage projects can be implemented along state and interstate highways, allowing Maryland to bypass land acquisition and permitting procedures to speed up the process of implementation.

The bill would also pump $70 million in Strategic Energy Investment Fund money to stand up the Solar and Energy Storage Gap Financing Program, which will finance local clean energy production projects that may be derailed by regulations under President Donald Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Beyond the $200 million to be used from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund under the bill, the Moore administration proposed that $292 million be transferred from that pool of money to the General Fund in an effort to close the $1.4 billion budget deficit.

Addressing the news media Tuesday, Ferguson said a “significant” amount of money has been proposed to different programs through the Strategic Energy Investment Fund, and the Senate wants to ensure that they are “the highest and best value for ratepayers.”

“We know that we need to generate more energy,” he said. “Having lots of little, tiny programs that are all over the map may not be the best way to approach it instead of being targeted with a larger investment that will get more electricity on the grid, so we’ll have to take a closer look — get a better sense of how each of these programs would function.”

In an effort to increase generation in Maryland, Moore’s legislation would also mandate that utility companies prioritize advanced transmission and grid-enhancing technologies when looking to increase grid capacity. Companies would be required to submit plans to employ those technologies to the Public Service Commission before seeking approval to build new transmission lines.

Additionally, the bill would eliminate the 0.5% incentive that utility companies are allowed to collect in profit and would instead require them to join PJM Interconnection.

Maryland is one of 13 states and Washington, D.C., connected to PJM Interconnection’s grid. 

“In the face of rapidly rising utility bills, our state leaders need to scrutinize every cost that is being charged to ratepayers,” Emily Scarr, a senior advisor at Maryland PIRG, said Tuesday. “Gov. Moore’s proposal to require utility participation in regional grid planning and management will save Maryland utility customers twenty million dollars a year.”