The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) — in charge of regulating the states’ utility companies — called BGE to testify Wednesday on its long customer service wait times and suggested the utility may have a deeper problem on its hands.
BGE’s customer service call wait time in recent weeks has averaged over 50 minutes, while billing question wait times are averaging over 100 minutes.
The PSC has received 657 complaints against BGE from July 1 through Nov. 16, about a fourth of which were related to issues getting ahold of the utility.
By the fall, customers told the PSC they were not getting the option to wait on hold, and instead, an automated message advised that BGE is “experiencing heavy call volumes,” and the only option offered was to get a callback from BGE.
Some customers reported that they requested a callback and did not get one.
But BGE Vice President of Customer Relations Steven Singh says the utility’s call volume is only up .2 percent from last year around this time, and it’s actually the complexity of the customer calls that’s driving up wait times.
“With the supply cost and the rising usage, our customers are really concerned about what's happening with their bill. Why is it so high? What is this supply cost of what's driving this? What are my options in terms of things I can do in terms of getting on payment arrangement plans?” Singh told the PSC.
Singh also pointed to the recent federal workforce furloughs as cause for customer service woes, but members of the PSC didn’t appear too convinced by BGE’s explanation.
“In our assessment the inaccessibility that customers are reporting isn't on any of these individual [customer service] workers. Instead, this looks to be a systemic issue. Recent news suggests it's not likely to change anytime soon. In fact, quite the opposite,” Stephanie Bolton, Director of the PSC’s Consumer Affairs Division said.
Bolton also testified that the division has not seen the same surge in complaints against other local utility companies, even though all utilities are experiencing the same extreme temperatures and supply cost increases.
Additionally, Nicole Zeichner with the Office of People’s Counsel (OPC) — an independent state agency that advocates for utility consumers — told the PSC that BGE blaming higher utility bills solely on supply charge increases and weather is deceptive.
Supply charges cover the actual cost of energy, which have skyrocketed in recent years due to grid-wide generation issues, while distribution charges pay for the delivery of that energy into ratepayers’ homes.
BGE’s electric distribution rates have increased every year for the past seven years and are scheduled to increase again in 2026, along with their gas distribution rates.
“Although supply costs do play a role here, we think it is frankly misleading to customers to not account for the fact that distribution rates have also increased. It doesn't tell the whole story, and that customer messaging is not appropriate,” Zeichner said.
Commissioner Bonnie Suchman agrees that BGE appears to have a larger problem on its hands than just call wait times.
“The fact that one of your sister utilities is not running into the same problem suggests to me that maybe there is also a problem within BGE that you need to look to,” Suchman said. “You might have a systemic problem, and I'm suggesting that as you continue to work through these issues, that you look internally to see if there's a problem there.”
Singh says BGE plans to hire 30 more customer service representatives, as well as more contractual services, to help with the call volume, and refutes the idea that BGE is facing a systemic issue.
OPC asked the commission to direct BGE to provide a public response on various data points about its customer service division, as well as form a corrective action plan for BGE to address customer wait times.
BGE Counsel Joel Michel argues the utility has already provided OPC with “substantial” information and pushed back against creating a formal improvement plan.
“There is a record of all the things that BGE says it's going to implement. Having the company take the time to put a filing together, it's inefficient, and frankly, the same team that's responsible for managing the call center are going to be the same team that has to take the time out of the day to do these compliance filings, respond to these questions from OPC and it's inefficient,” Michel said.
The PSC ultimately told BGE to go ahead with its planned staffing increases but said it will still be issuing a directive that may request more information and demand more action be taken to address the customer service concerns.
