Energy choice · Maryland
Should you shop for an electricity supplier in Maryland?
Maryland's own ratepayer advocate has found shoppers tend to overpay. Treat any offer that beats SOS with healthy suspicion and read the post-intro rate.
Check your own bill first (2 minutes, free)
Find the supply rate on your bill and compare it to your utility's Standard Offer Service. If a supplier is charging more, you're overpaying for identical electricity — and you can switch back. Our audit runs on your device; we never see your numbers, and we never try to switch you.
Check my rateHow choice works in Maryland
Your utility always handles delivery — the wires and the outages — and you can't shop that part. What you can shop is the supply: the electricity itself. Do nothing and you stay on the default rate, the Standard Offer Service (SOS). Standard Offer Service is procured on a rolling basis and the rate changes roughly every six months, and varies by utility (BGE, Pepco, Delmarva, Potomac Edison).
Maryland's official, commission-run resource is Maryland Electric Choice. It's a neutral, no-commission comparison tool — the only place worth shopping. One catch: it shows a plan's intro rate, not the variable rate it can roll into later, so read the contract's terms box before you sign.
- Maryland's own Office of People's Counsel — the state's official ratepayer advocate — has repeatedly found that residential customers who shopped paid more, in total, than they would have on Standard Offer Service. That's the regulator's consumer advocate saying it, not us.
- Standard Offer Service is a straight pass-through: your utility buys the power at auction and bills it on with no markup, which is exactly why it's so hard to beat.
Step-by-step: we wrote a full guide to using the Maryland OPC shopping guide — what each column means, the three contract terms to check, and the math to do before switching. Read the the Maryland OPC shopping guide guide →
Maryland's utilities — the rate to beat
This is the Standard Offer Service for each Maryland utility we track — the number a supplier offer has to beat. A "deal" above these is costing you money for the same electricity.
| Utility | SOS | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Delmarva Power | 12.35¢/kWh | |
| Potomac Edison | 12.936¢/kWh | |
| Pepco (Maryland) | 13.27¢/kWh | |
| Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) | 14.609¢/kWh |
Rates change on a schedule — always confirm the current figure on your bill or your utility's site before deciding.
Before you shop, know the traps
The same handful of tactics show up in every choice state: a teaser rate that flips to a variable one, an early-termination fee paired with a variable rate, monthly fees hiding behind a low headline rate, green-energy upsells, and "your utility sent me" pitches at the door. We break down each one — and the rule that cuts through all of them — in the main guide.
Read the full traps breakdown →Common questions
- Is it worth switching electricity suppliers in Maryland?
- Maryland's own ratepayer advocate has found shoppers tend to overpay. Treat any offer that beats SOS with healthy suspicion and read the post-intro rate. The only offer worth taking is a fixed rate, for the full term, with no monthly fee, that beats your Standard Offer Service — and you compare it on Maryland Electric Choice, not off a phone or door pitch.
- What is the Standard Offer Service in Maryland?
- It's the per-kWh rate your utility charges for default electricity supply — the SOS — and it's the number any supplier offer has to beat to actually save you money. Your utility buys that power at a wholesale auction and bills it through with no markup. Standard Offer Service is procured on a rolling basis and the rate changes roughly every six months, and varies by utility (BGE, Pepco, Delmarva, Potomac Edison).
- Will switching suppliers in Maryland change my service or reliability?
- No. Your utility still owns the wires, reads your meter, and handles outages regardless of who supplies your electricity. Switching only changes the supply line on your bill, and if a supplier goes out of business you're moved back to the default rate automatically.
RateWatchdog takes no supplier commissions and never enrolls or switches anyone. See the full energy-choice guide →