Md State Regulatory Commission

I. INTRODUCTION AND INDUSTRIES REGULATED

The Maryland General Assembly established the Public Service Commission (Commission) in 1910. The Commission is responsible for regulating the public utilities and certain passenger transportation companies doing business in Maryland. These utitlies include the regulation of gas, electric, telephone, water, sewage disposal, telecommunications, and transportation companies. Each of these commodities falls under a pure monopoly entity; therefore, “The Commission is empowered to hear and decide matters relating to: (1) rate adjustments; (2) applications to exercise or abandon franchises; (3) applications to modify the type or scope of service; (4) approval of issuance of securities; (5) promulgation of new rules and regulations; and (6) quality of utility and common carrier service” (MD Commission).

It is critical that the Commission oversee the regulation of these utilities because Maryland residents and businesses depend on these utilities on a daily basis. This research paper will discuss the specific public service companies in the industry, how many are registered and regulated, the top 10 companies, and why regulation is necessary.

As stated above, the utilities companies in Maryland are pure monopoly entities, “in which one firm is the sole seller of a product or service (for example, a local electric utility);” for a particular city/county within a state (McConnell and Brue). The following bulleted lists show that the State of Maryland has six gas and electric providers.

• Gas Providers

 Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE)

 Chesapeake

 Columbia

 Eastern Shore Gas

 NUI

 WGL

• Electric Providers

 Allegheny Power

 BGE

 Choptank

 Delmarva

 Pepco

 Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO)

Each of these service providers has a designated Service Territory in which they provide various utilities services to residential and businesses customers. Take for instance the...