Potomac Edison Standard Offer Service & rate increases

Standard Offer Service (current rate)

12.936¢/kWh

Effective June 1, 2026 (current) · last reviewed June 14, 2026

Estimate for comparison — confirm the current rate and all charges with Potomac Edison before acting. Not advice.

Next scheduled reset: October 1, 2026 (typical schedule — confirm before acting) · Seasonal (summer / winter). Every utility's reset calendar →

Of the 4 Maryland utilities we track, Potomac Edison's Standard Offer Service is the 2nd-lowest — the range runs from 12.35¢ (Delmarva Power) to 14.609¢ (Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE)). Compare all Maryland rates →

What it means: a Potomac Edison customer on a 17¢/kWh third-party supplier rate pays about $420 more per year than the Standard Offer Service (12.936¢), based on ~860 kWh/month. The audit below checks your actual rate.

The worth-it line: for a switch to save at least $10/month at ~750 kWh, a supplier offer must be a fixed rate below 11.60¢/kWh — with no monthly fee and no cancellation fee. Offers between 11.60¢ and 12.936¢ technically "beat" the Standard Offer Service but save too little to justify contract risk. The full math, all utilities →

Potomac Edison customer service & quick facts

The official ways to reach Potomac Edison for outages, billing, and account help. RateWatchdog is independent and not affiliated with Potomac Edison — these are the utility's own channels.

Customer service

1-800-686-0011

Mon–Fri 8am–6pm (automated line 24/7)

Report a power outage

1-888-544-4877

Live outage map →

Pay your bill

Pay Potomac Edison bill online →

Start, stop, or move service

Start / stop service →

Verified June 15, 2026 · confirm on Potomac Edison's siteHere to check if your rate is too high? Jump to the audit ↓

Is Potomac Edison a monopoly? Can you switch?

For delivery, yes — it's a monopoly. Potomac Edison is the only company that runs the poles and wires to homes in its territory, so you can't pick a different company to deliver your power. That part is a regulated monopoly: Potomac Edison, owned by FirstEnergy, can only charge what the MD PSC approves in a rate case.

The electricity itself, though, is open to competition. You can buy your supply from a third-party supplier, or do nothing and stay on Potomac Edison's default rate — the Standard Offer Service the MD PSC oversees. Switching suppliers doesn't change who delivers your power or who you call during an outage; it only changes the supply line on your bill. And if a supplier is charging more than the Standard Offer Service, you can drop it and return to that regulated rate, usually within one or two billing cycles — no fee to the utility.

How often does Potomac Edison's power go out?

Federal reliability data, reported by the utility to the U.S. government. SAIDI is the average total time a customer is without power in a year; SAIFI is the average number of outages.

On normal-day reliability, Potomac Edison is the least reliable of the 4 Maryland utilities we track — the range runs from 46 min (Pepco (Maryland)) to 2 hr 39 min (Potomac Edison) of typical-day outage time per year.

Source: U.S. EIA Form EIA-861, 2024 reliability data (IEEE 1366 standard), for The Potomac Edison Company. eia.gov →

How often does Potomac Edison disconnect customers for nonpayment?

Utilities report this to the federal government. It counts residential service disconnected for unpaid bills. A high rate isn't proof of wrongdoing — it's shaped by local poverty, climate, and how strong a state's shutoff-protection rules are, as much as by the utility itself.

That's the lowest disconnection rate of the 4 Maryland utilities we track — the range runs from 2.1 per 100 (Potomac Edison) to 4.1 per 100 (Delmarva Power).

Counts disconnection events — one household can be shut off more than once. From Potomac Edison's own filings to the U.S. EIA (Form EIA-112, Residential Utility Disconnections Survey), first collected for 2024. eia.gov →

Where your bill money goes: how Potomac Edison earns its profit

Because Potomac Edison is a regulated monopoly, its profit isn't set by competing for customers — it's set by regulators. The MD PSC authorizes a target return on equity (around 9.5% to 10.5% for U.S. electric utilities) on the money it sinks into poles, wires, substations, and meters. It's a target, not a guarantee — a utility can earn above or below it — but a low-risk regulated monopoly reliably lands close. You pay that return back, plus the investment itself, through the delivery charge on every bill.

Potomac Edison is owned by FirstEnergy. In 2024, FirstEnergy reported about $978 million in net income — its profit across all of the utilities it owns, not Potomac Edison alone. Source: FirstEnergy's annual report (SEC Form 10-K, fiscal year 2024). SEC EDGAR →

That authorized return is set by regulators on the utility's investment — independently of how reliable the service is or how many customers are disconnected, the two measures above.