Maryland Public Service Commission

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The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) is an independent administrative agency within the state government which regulates public utilities and certain taxi cab and other passenger services in Maryland. Similar to other state public utilities commissions, the Maryland PSC regulates and sets tariff rates for natural gas, electricity distribution, local telephone, water, and sewage disposal companies. The PSC also sets the tariff rates for pilot services for vessels and privately owned toll bridges, approves the construction of electric generating plants and overhead transmission lines with a voltage above 69 kV, and licenses retail natural gas and electricity suppliers. [1] The PSC offices are located in Baltimore in the William Donald Schaefer Building.

Contents

Members of the Public Service Commission

The five PSC commissioners serve staggered five-year terms, are appointed by the Governor, and are confirmed by the Senate of the Maryland General Assembly. Commissioners may begin serving immediately upon appointment, but the governor may withdraw the appointments of unconfirmed commissioners. [2] By statute the commissioners must be representative of the state's regions and demographics.

Current Commissioners [3]
NameAppointed ByDate First AppointedDate ReappointedCurrent Term Expires
Chair Frederick H. Hoover Gov. Moore (D) July 1, 2023June 30, 2028
Michael T. Richard Gov. Hogan (R) January 20162020June 30, 2025
Kumar Barve Gov. Moore (D) May 2023 [2] June 30, 2024
Bonnie Suchman Gov. Moore (D) June 2023 [4] June 30, 2027
vacantJune 30, 2026

Kumar Barve was initially appointed to finish a partial term ending June 30, 2024, and was later reappointed to a full five-year term that will begin on July 1, 2024 and run through June 30, 2029. [5]

The currently vacant position was most recently occupied by Anthony J. O'Donnell who retired effective June 1, 2024. [6]

Agency operations

The PSC enforces the state statutes in the Public Utilities article of the Annotated Code of Maryland. Hearings on matters subject to the jurisdiction of the PSC are conducted before the Commission or by its public utility law judges (PULJs). The PSC has an independent division of PULJs who issue proposed orders, which may be appealed to the Commission. Most hearings are held in the PSC offices in Maryland, but state statutes require public hearings for some subject matter to be held in the county or municipality affected by the proceeding. Final orders are issued by the Commission and are subject to judicial review in the state circuit courts. The PSC publishes a selection of its orders each year along with its annual report to the Maryland General Assembly in its own case reporter.

History

Supported by a plank in the Maryland Democratic Party state electoral platform to enact a regulatory utility law and by Governor Austin Crothers, the PSC was established in 1910. [7] [8] The initial purpose of the PSC was to fix the rates of steam railroads, street railways, ferries, toll bridges, and gas, electric, heating, water, telegraph, telephone, and water utilities, [8] but the PSC also had the authority to hear complaints about service. [9]

In December 1911, William Ashbie Hawkins represented several plaintiffs before the PSC protesting against the segregated conditions both in boats and trains under the state's Jim Crow laws. [9] [10] In October 1911, Hawkins, outraged at poor sleeping and eating conditions for black people on Chesapeake Bay ferryboats, took the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railway Company to court. Though his complaint was dismissed, the PSC did recommend, on February 13, 1912, that the company upgrade its facilities for black people [11] and occasionally required upgrades to facilities consistent with the "separate but equal" requirements of that time. [9] A series of complaints were filed in 1911 challenging conditions faced by African-Americans on steam boats regulated by the PSC due to the segregated facilities provided under the recently enacted Maryland Jim Crow laws. [9]

In 1999, legislation titled the Electric Customer Choice and Competition Act of 1999 was enacted to restructure the electric industry and electric generation was deregulated.

Electric generating plants

Although the PSC, as a result of the 1999 deregulation of the state electric industry, no longer regulates the cost of electricity generated in plants located in Maryland, it still is responsible for the approval of electric generating plants and transmission lines and for the approval of certain modifications. [12] An entity planning to construct or modify a generation plant or transmission line must receive a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the PSC. An application for a CPCN must first be filed with the PSC and is then reviewed before a PULJ in a formal adjudicatory process, which includes an opportunity for public participation. Since the PSC is an independent commission, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Power Plant Research Program (PPRP) is responsible for the coordination of the State agencies' review. This coordinated review process allows the State to examine potential impacts upon its natural and cultural resources, environment and economy and typically culminates in a set of recommended licensing conditions. In addition, the PSC Staff and a State agency charged with protecting the interests of electricity ratepayers, the Office of People's Council (OPC), intervenes in the case and can present their arguments and opinions. [12] Upon completion of the adjudicatory and public hearings, the PULJ will issue a proposed order. After a period which an appeal can be made to the full commission, a final order is released either granting or denying the application. [12] Certain small generating plants, including most emergency generators, are approved using an abbreviated process.

Although there are approximately 40 generating plants that provide power for customers in the state, Maryland imported about 35% of its electricity from neighboring states in 2008. [13]

Electric generating stations in Maryland larger than 50 MW [13]
StationTypeOperatorLocationCapacity (MW)
Brandon Shores Bituminous coal Raven Power Orchard Beach 1370
Charles P. Crane Bituminous coal Raven Power Bowleys Quarters 416
Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Exelon, Électricité de France Lusby 1829
Chalk Point Oil, gas NRG Energy Eagle Harbor 2647
Conowingo Hydroelectric Exelon Corporation Conowingo 507
Criterion Wind Project Wind Constellation Oakland 70
Dickerson Coal, oil, gas NRG Energy Dickerson 930
Easton Easton Utilities Easton 72
Gould Street Natural gas Constellation Baltimore 103
Herbert A. Wagner Coal, oil, gasRaven PowerOrchard Beach1058
Luke Mill NewPage Corporation Luke 65
Montgomery County
Resource Recovery Facility 		Waste Northeast Maryland
Waste Disposal Auth.		 Dickerson 68
Morgantown Coal NRG Energy Morgantown 1548
Notch Cliff Constellation Glen Arm 144
Panda Brandywine Panda Energy Brandywine 289
Perryman Constellation Perryman 404
Philadelphia Road Constellation Baltimore County83
Riverside Natural gas Constellation Dundalk 257
Rock Springs Natural gas The Carlyle Group Rock Springs773
Sparrows Point Severstal Sparrows Point 120
Vienna Oil NRG Energy Vienna 167
Warrior Run Bituminous coal AES Corporation Cumberland 229
Westport Constellation Baltimore122
Wheelabrator Incinerator Waste Waste Management, Inc.Baltimore65
Future electric generating stations in Maryland (larger than 50 MW) [13]
StationTypeOperatorLocationCapacity (MW)
Waldorf Natural gas Competitive Power VenturesWaldorf, Charles County725 [14]
Natural gas Panda Energy Brandywine, Prince Georges County858 [14]
Natural gas Public Service Enterprise Group 755 [14]
Former electric generating stations in Maryland (larger than 50 MW) [13]
StationTypeOperatorLocationCapacity (MW)
R. Paul Smith (closed 2012) Bituminous coal FirstEnergy Williamsport 109

Base load coal and nuclear generating plants generate the greater portion of electricity in Maryland. Coal-fired plants producing 39.3% of the state's electric generation in 2008 with nuclear plants generating 13.8%, oil and gas plants 41.2%, and hydroelectric plants and other renewables providing the remainder. [13] In a 2010 report the PSC reported that 70% of the electric generating capacity in the state came from plants that were over 30 years old. [13] As of 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States was reviewing whether Maryland is allowed to subsidize new power plants. [14]

Passenger carriers

Passenger carriers (including taxicabs) operating intrastate in Maryland must obtain a certificate to operate in Maryland. Carriers operating in Montgomery or Prince George's Counties that will also operate interstate into Washington, DC, or the cities and counties in Virginia that border Washington must also register with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Commission.

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References

  1. ↑ "Background Information". Maryland Public Service Commission. Retrieved 2011-09-26.
  2. 1 2 Maryland Matters, June 1, 2023
  3. ↑ MD PSC List of Commissioners
  4. ↑ Maryland Matters, June 14, 2023
  5. ↑ PSC Bio for Kumar Brave
  6. ↑ PSC Announces Retirement of Commissioner Anthony O’Donnell
  7. ↑ John Philip Hill & Arthur R. Padgett, Annotated Public Service Commission Law of Maryland 3 (1913). Cited in Bogen, David S. "Precursors of Rosa Parks: Maryland Transportation Cases Between the Civil War and the Beginning of World War I." Md. L. Rev. 63 (2004): 721.
  8. 1 2 Hively, John P. (1971). "Maryland Government 1867-1956". In Radolf, Morris L. (ed.). The Old Line State: A History of Maryland. Baltimore: Twentieth Century Printing Co. p. 377.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Bogen, David S. (2004). "Precursors of Rosa Parks: Maryland Transportation Cases Between the Civil War and the Beginning of World War I" (PDF). Maryland Law Review. 63: 721, 747–749. Retrieved 14 June 2010.
    Note: Bogen notes in his footnotes that in Henry G. Burke's work on the Public Service Commission of Maryland 124, 131-57 (1932). In a study of the PSC, the author (Burke) devoted a chapter to valuation and rate cases, id. at 131-57, but mentioned racial complaints only once, when listing the complaints in cases to vacate orders of the Commission. Id. at 124-25.
  10. ↑ "Bogen cites Officers Admit Color Discrimination", Afro-Am. Ledger (Balt.), Dec. 9, 1911, at 1; "Attorney Hawkins Makes Appeal", Afro-Am. Ledger (Balt.), Feb. 17, 1912, at 8.
  11. ↑ Archives of Maryland, (Biographical Series), W. Ashbie Hawkins (1861-1941), MSA SC 3520-12415.
  12. 1 2 3 Annotated Code of Maryland, Pub. Utils. § 7-207.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Maryland Public Service Commission (August 2011). "Ten-Year Plan (2010-2019) of Electric Companies in Maryland" (PDF). pp. 7–8, 11. Retrieved 2011-09-28.
  14. 1 2 3 4 "High Court Will Decide Federal, State Powerplant Subsidy Tiff". Engineering News-Record .
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