A full description of all 30+ policies contained in the 2026 energy omnibus package

By Jamie DeMarco, initially published in Maryland Energy Talk

Since session ended I have read through the Utility RELIEF (Reducing Energy Load Inflation for Everyday Families) Act page by page, line by line, and writing down every single thing this new law does. Let me tell you, there is A LOT in this thing. Thinking about this bill has pretty much been my full time job for the past two months, and there are parts of it I never knew about until I completed this meticulous comb-through.

For example, did you know that the Utility RELIEF Act removes the 800-megawatt cap on the utility scale battery procurement that the Public Service Commission is in the middle of executing? Because I didn’t. This little-discussed provision toward the back of the bill could result in hundreds of megawatts of additional battery storage in the state.

To save you all the trouble of reading 100 pages of dense bill text, I have written down every provision below. I hope this will provide a person of any political persuasion a detailed and accurate understanding of what’s in the bill. That said, I do add a heavy helping of my own beliefs and opinions.

Let me also say that while Maryland Energy Talk is a podcast, this is my first post that doesn’t have a corresponding audio file. There are just so many provisions in this bill that I thought it would be more useful for folks to have them in writing than in an audio file. Let me know what you think. That said, Brittany Baker and I are thinking up fun ways to add some color commentary to all this text and make an engaging podcast with this content, so stay tuned for that.

Let me also say that going through this bill just to understand it and copy it down has increased my already great appreciation for the lawmakers and staff who developed and compiled this codex of policies. To all our public servants, I extend a heartfelt thank you.

Now, without further ado, here are the provisions of the Utility RELIEF Act, listed in their order of appearance in the bill.

GREEN Act

Economic Development Article 10-826

The Utility RELIEF Act includes the text of the GREEN (Green and Renewable Energy Efficiency for Nonprofits) Act. The Senate has unanimously passed Vice-Chair Kagan’s GREEN Act for years, though it has never passed the House. The GREEN Act would create a revolving loan fund to help nonprofits access up-front capital to install solar panels and perform other energy efficiency retrofits. The bill text says that the Governor may include in the annual budget up to $5 million from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund (SEIF) for this purpose in fiscal years 2028 and 2029.

Reporting on Electric Vehicles

Environment Article 2-1209

This section of the Utility RELIEF Act requires the Maryland Department of the Environment to report annually on the Greenhouse Gas Emission reductions achieved through the adoption of electric vehicles in Maryland.

Electric Universal Service Program

Human Services Article 5-101

Here, the Utility RELIEF Act directs the Office of Home Energy Programs to implement and administer the Electric Universal Service Program currently run by the Public Service Commission. The bill redefines the purpose of the Electric Universal Service Program as to assist electric customers with annual incomes at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, and specifically customers who fall under 200% of the poverty line but are not eligible for the Federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Benefits from this reconstituted program shall be given out starting in January 2027.

Expediting Residential Solar Permitting

Local Government Article 1-1320

In Australia, a home owner can go from making their first call inquiring about solar panel installation to selling electricity back to the grid from their rooftop in under a week. In the United States, that process typically takes 60-90 days. This permitting delay is the primary driver in the astronomical difference in solar cost in the United States compared to other countries such as Germany and Australia described in the graphic.

The Maryland General Assembly had previously passed legislation designed to expedite local permitting for rooftop solar, but implementation was mixed.

The Utility RELIEF Act includes language that redefines “solar permitting software” from the previous legislation’s definition to not just mean a website, but a digital tool that can quickly and easily process most applications for solar building permits. It requires that local governments complete remote or in-person inspections for solar permitting applications within an average of five business days. Any manual reviews of remote inspections must take place within five additional business days. It also limits a permitting fee from a municipality to not more than $500 for the home owner.

In addition to setting requirements on local governments, the Utility RELIEF Act also requires that utilities perform any meter disconnections and reconnections that are necessary to accommodate solar panels within five business days.

If these provisions are successfully implemented and have the desired outcome, they will significantly decrease the permitting delays for installing rooftop solar panels, which will in turn significantly decrease the cost of rooftop solar panels.

Environmental Trust Fund

Natural Resources Article 3-302

The Utility RELIEF Act removes current statute which says that the Maryland Energy Administration shall receive funds from the Environmental Trust Fund of up to $250,000 annually for studies relating to the conservation and production of electric energy.

Public Service Commission Transparency

Public Utilities Article 2-124, 4-203.1

The Utility RELIEF requires the Public Service Commission (PSC) to allow for keyword search in the cases and rule makings listed on its website. The PSC must also create a dashboard to track the state’s progress toward policy goals, including net metering and battery storage.

Going forward, when the PSC initiates proceedings that could result in an increase of at least 3% to distribution costs, the PSC must send utility customers links to information about how to learn more about the proceeding and potentially get involved in the proceeding process.

Data Center Cost Allocation

Public Utilities Article 4-212

In the Next Generation Energy Act of 2025, the Maryland General Assembly established that new large load energy users will pay a higher price for electricity through a new tariff to cover the costs that data centers incur on the grid. The 2025 legislation set the threshold for a large load user at 100 megawatts and an 80% utilization rate. The Utility RELIEF Act lowers those thresholds to 25 megawatts and 60%, respectively, in order to ensure more small data centers are required to pay the tariff.

The regional transmission organization that Maryland participates in, PJM, is in the process of determining how to allocate the cost created by the need to procure gigawatts of new energy generation for data centers. PJM cannot allocate these costs directly to data centers, but most go through local utilities or load-serving entities. The Utility RELIEF Act requires that utilities pass along any costs assigned to data centers by PJM as part of the capacity auction process to data centers.

The Public Service Commission will also create a voluntary large-load interruptible interconnection service. The details are not spelled out in statute, but interruptible grid service for data centers generally refers to allowing data centers to connect to the grid faster if they agree to not pull from the grid during peak demand hours.

Utility Participation in Regional Transmission Organization

Public Utilities Article 7-109

Right now, Maryland utilities and electric cooperatives all voluntarily participate in the PJM regional transmission organization. Because utilities can always threaten to leave PJM, they have leverage over PJM, and they can use that leverage to pressure PJM to enact policies that benefit the utilities. Their voluntary participation also gives them the higher profit return of 0.5% under the rate setting policies of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the cost of which customers pay for in their utility bills

The Utility RELIEF Act requires utilities to be members of a local regional transmission organization. This provides the double benefit of removing the rationale for the extra profits, creating cost savings for Maryland utility customers, and takes away the leverage utilities currently hold over PJM.

While PJM has mismanaged the grid and is generally the worst run regional transmission organization in the country, it is still beneficial for utilities to participate in a regional transmission organization.

Transmission Notices

Public Utilities Article 7-204

The Utility RELIEF Act requires that developers of transmission lines provide earlier notice by mail to every property owner in the path of the transmission line about the potential project. It also establishes punishments and setbacks for the project if they fail to provide notice to landowners.

Advanced Transmission Technologies

Public Utilities Article 7-207, 7-207.7

Advanced transmission technologies allow for greater transmission capacity without building new transmission lines where there were none prior. They include replacing old transmission wires with high performance conducting transmission wires, incorporating grid-enhancing technologies, adding grid monitoring devices, using storage as a transmission asset, implementing software improvements, and other additional approaches.

The Utility RELIEF Act requires that when a utility or a developer applies for a Certification of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) the applicant must consider local and regional transmission plans, and an analysis of whether the new need being met by the proposed transmission line could instead by met more cost-effectively by deploying advanced transmission technologies.

In addition to considering advanced transmission technologies when building new transmission lines, the Utility RELIEF also requires transmission owners to submit reports to the PSC every four years on the potential of deploying advanced transmission technologies, the state of deployment, and proposals for how to deploy advanced transmission technologies.

This section also removes loopholes allowing certain transmission projects, as well as underground transmission lines to be exempt from many of the regulations under the Public Utilities Article.

Prevailing Wage

Public Utilities Article 7-207.6

Existing Maryland law requires that the construction of any electricity generation facility larger than one megawatt pay its workers prevailing wages. However, that law has proven difficult to implement and enforce. This section of the Utility RELIEF Act directs the Department of Labor to proactively and directly enforce prevailing wage requirements for solar facilities.

PSC Report on Energy Storage

Public Utilities Article 7-216.1

The Utility RELIEF Act requires the PSC to report every year on the status of energy storage deployment goals.

EmPOWER

Public Utilities Article 7-221

Energy efficiency is the lowest cost way to free up more capacity on the grid at a time of growing energy demand. The EmPOWER program reduces energy bills by more than it costs to run. For every dollar invested in EmPOWER, Maryland gets $2.21 in benefits. The EmPOWER program has saved Marylanders over $15 billion in reduced energy costs. The EmPOWER program has added 3,500 megawatts of capacity to our grid. That’s the equivalent of two Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plants worth of energy.

Not spending money on energy efficiency means we will have to spend more money building substations, transmission lines, and power plants to meet the increased energy demand we did not eliminate with efficiency. Decreasing the EmPOWER program will, on net, increase energy costs. That is the finding of a recent report from ACEEE, as shown in the graphic below:

Despite the fact that EmPOWER is Maryland’s most successful pollution and bill reduction program, cutting EmPOWER remains one of the few levers lawmakers can pull to decrease energy bills in the short term. For this reason, the Maryland General Assembly temporarily decreased the EmPOWER program and eliminated the Gas EmPOWER program.

Before the Utility RELIEF Act passed, the EmPOWER program was scheduled to achieve a 2.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions every year. The Utility RELIEF Act shrank that number to 1.75% for the next three years and slowly ramped it back up to 2.5% by 2036. The bill also stipulates that community solar and distribution connected solar can count towards up to 20% of the EmPOWER goal for the next three years.

To cut down on overhead costs, the Utility RELIEF Act also initiates a process for determining whether EmPOWER should be run by a third party administrator rather than each utility running their own separate program.

Data Centers

Public Utilities 7-232, 7-234

For a full conversation with Senator Hester about the data center provisions of the Utility RELIEF Act, listen to this episode of Maryland Energy Talk

The Utility RELIEF Act creates a large load registry held with the Public Service Commission. The bill creates a list of exemptions of large loads not covered by this policy including hospitals and district energy systems. New large load users who are not exempt will have to register with this new registry and disclose information about how the large load customer’s energy and capacity needs will be served, onsite backup generation, the amount of water that will be used, annual energy usage, and any other information the PSC necessary.

Developers will also have to disclose if they have any duplicative requests for interconnecting the large load project in the region. This will help utilities, the PSC, and PJM see through the “phantom load” effect where a developer trying to build a single data center can look like multiple new data centers because the developer is pursuing multiple possible locations at once.

The PSC will aggregate and anonymize the data collected through the large load registry before sharing the information publicly. Maryland will know the total data center demand for water and energy, but not the specifics of individual projects. The specifics of individual projects will become attainable by a Public Information Act request after the project has become operational.

Under the Utility RELIEF Act, the PSC will also charge every covered large load user to pay not less than $1,000 per megawatt of leak load. These funds would be split between funding the Electrical Universal Service Program and the low income EmPOWER programs.

The Utility RELIEF Act also creates a tiered system modeled off of LEED Buildings for data centers. If a data center brings new clean capacity equal to 80% of its peak demand then it will get a gold designation, and if they bring 100% of their peak demand with clean capacity they will get a platinum designation. A gold designation will get a data center the ability to jump to the front of the line of data centers being considered for interconnection. If a data center gets a platinum rating, it will get all the benefits of a gold designation plus the ability to pay for its own substation to shorten build times, and a guarantee that their application will be processed within 12 months.

Today, a data center developer does not have any incentive to bring their own new clean energy, but this policy creates a very substantive carrot designed to incentive them to create clean energy. The energy sources that can count toward clean capacity are: Battery storage (either on site or on the local grid), new non-emitting generation assets, a virtual power plant, and a demand response program.

Adjacent Community Solar Projects

Public Utilities 7-306.2

Current law prohibits a community solar project being built on a parcel of land adjacent to an existing community solar project if the combined capacity of the two projects is over five megawatts. The purpose of this language is to stop a developer from buying a piece of land, subdividing it, then building five megawatt community solar projects on multiple smaller parcels that are all right next to each other.

However, this means that sometimes community solar developers are building projects on adjacent parcels of land and learn too late about their proximity. Under current law, both projects could not be built, but both companies have invested resources in developing the property. This section of the Utility RELIEF Act attempts to address this problem by allowing adjacent parcels to have a cumulative community solar capacity of 20 megawatts.

Plug In Solar

Public Utilities Article 7-321

The Utility RELIEF Act allows solar panels of a certain size and with the proper safety equipment to plug directly into a wall outlet. The bill sets a hard limit on the size of a plug in solar system at 1,200 watts or about four solar panels. The bill requires that plug in solar systems comply with standards set by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). In most cases, this will require a certified electrician to install a plug in system.

However, the Utility RELIEF Act exempts plug in solar systems smaller than 391 watts (or about one solar panel) from any UL requirements regarding upgrades to physical wires in the house or outlet receptacles. This ensures that consumers can still buy a plug in solar panel at the store and plug it into their outlet without consulting an electrician.

UL is a cautious and conservative rulemaking body. They tend to offer more leniency over time as a technology is deployed more broadly without malfunction. It is likely that over time, UL standards will become more relaxed and systems up to 1,200 watts will be able to be plugged in without an electrician.

Most of the cost of a residential solar system is the labor associated with installation. When you buy a solar panel at the store and plug it into your outlet, it will often pay for itself in under two years, and then keep lowering your energy bills for at least 15 years after that.

Third Party Suppliers

Public Utilities Article 7-510

In 2024, the Maryland General Assembly passed SB 1. At the time, third party suppliers were price gouging vulnerable ratepayers. There were shady actors who would get customers to sign contracts with low rates in the first month, but whose rates would skyrocket shortly thereafter. SB 1 put in safeguards to protect consumers from these bad actors.

These third party suppliers went away at the same time Maryland was hit by the perfect storm of a simultaneous increase in PJM capacity auction payments, record high utility distribution costs, and back to back cold winters. Many people who had third party suppliers think that their bills went up because they lost their third party suppliers, but in fact subscribing to a third party supplier would not protect a ratepayer from any of these costs.

In response to pushback on SB from 2024, the Utility RELIEF Act makes four changes to third party supplier rules.

1. It allows third party suppliers to charge up to 10% above Standard Offer Service (SOS) where previously the limit had been no higher than SOS
2. It defines SOS as the most recent price, rather than the 12 month rolling average that had been used previously
3. It allows third party contracts to last for up to three years, an increase from the one year limitation established by SB 1
4. It allows for contracts with variable pricing where the pricing so long as the plan does not change prices more than twice a year and the cost of the plan is always lower than Standard Offer Service (SOS). This allows third party suppliers to offer contracts that say “If we can beat SOS, we will charge you the better price, but if we can’t, we will charge you SOS.”

The ratepayer advocates who fought for SB 1 are not happy with these concessions.

DRIVE Act Reforms

Public Utilities Article 7-1006, State Finance and Procurement Article 13-117, 13-218,

In 2024, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Distributed Renewable Integration and Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE) Act, which directed utilities to establish distributed, battery powered, virtual power plants. This would look like paying ratepayers to discharge home or car batteries back to the grid during peak hours.

A virtual power plant of this kind is one of the lowest cost ways to add new capacity to the grid, but it does cost money. The DRIVE Act was going to be paid by ratepayers and it would have had a line item associated with the program on people’s bills.

The Utility RELIEF Act changes the program so that any rebates given out through the DRIVE Act need to be provided by MEA rather than ratepayers. Those MEA funds would come from the SEIF. The rule making and implementation of the DRIVE Act would remain at the PSC.

Because SEIF funds are limited, this constitutes a shrinking of the DRIVE Act program, and the capacity not added to the grid through the DRIVE Act will have to be acquired from other, likely more expensive, sources.

Changes to Nuclear Procurement

Public Utilities Article 7-1201

In the Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 the Maryland General Assembly set up a mechanism for the Public Service Commission to procure new nuclear power generation in the state. The Next Generation Energy Act was clear that after a developer submitted a bid to build a nuclear power plant and offered a price for how much that project would cost, any cost overruns would be paid for by the developer, not ratepayers.

The Utility RELIEF Act changes the rules of that procurement so that a nuclear developer can charge ratepayers for a cost overrun of up to 15% beyond their quoted price.

The graph shows that nuclear energy is the most expensive way to add more capacity to the grid, while energy efficiency is the most cost effective option. The Utility RELIEF Act simultaneously puts ratepayers more on the hook for nuclear procurement and also cuts energy efficiency programs because they are seen as too expensive.

Hiring for the Strategic Energy Planning Office

Public Utilities Article 7-1302

In 2025 the Maryland General Assembly passed the Energy Resource Adequacy and Planning Act. This legislation created a Strategic Energy Planning Office to function as in-house energy experts for the general assembly.

The Utility RELIEF Act specifies that the first term of the director of the office shall begin on July 1, 2026. If you are interested in the position, better get your resume ready.

Stopping Potential Baltimore Data Center

Real Properties Article 14-134

The Baltimore Peninsula has a long history we will not explore here. Suffice it to say that there has been public speculation that a data center was in the works for the Peninsula. The Utility RELIEF Act prohibits a data center from being built in that portion of Baltimore City.

SEIF Fund Allocations

State Finance and Procurement Article 9-20B-01

This portion of the Utility RELIEF Act allows SEIF funds to be used for additional purposes. Those purposes include:

• Submetered energy assistance in apartment houses.
• The GREEN Act
• BEPS compliance
• Grants for renewable energy projects
• Funding for clean energy and efficiency programs for buildings and school electrification
• Transportation-related emission reduction programs including charging infrastructure and EV school bus deployment
• Electric system resiliency programs including resiliency hubs
• Administrative expenses of the Maryland Clean Energy Center
• For fiscal year 2027: EmPOWER cost offsetting
• For fiscal year 2027: offset limited-income rate mechanism
• For fiscal year 2027: to provide funding for a study of public school HVAC systems in Baltimore City
• For fiscal year 2027: upgrades to public school HVAC systems in Baltimore City
• For fiscal year 2027: Residential and Commercial Energy Storage Grant Program
• For fiscal year 2027: review of renewable energy project through the Power Plant Research Program
• For fiscal year 2027: provide additional funding for heat pump installations
• Beginning in fiscal year 2028: $5 million a year for the Power Plant Research Program
• Beginning in fiscal year 2028: $9 million for DRIVE Act implementation

The Utility RELIEF Act also allows funds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative designated for ratepayer assistance to be used for fuel assistance programs in addition to electricity assistance programs.

This section also allocates $100 million of Alternative Compliance Payment funds from the Renewable Portfolio Standard toward grant programs for renewable energy projects. These funds will be used for the reverse auction that MEA will run.

MEA Reverse Auction

9-20E-01, 9-20E-02

The Utility RELIEF Act directs MEA to conduct a reverse auction for clean energy. In a typical auction there is one seller and multiple buyers who drive the cost up through competition. In a reverse auction there is one buyer and multiple sellers who drive the cost down through competition. In this instance, MEA will be the buyer and solar developers will be the sellers who compete to offer the best price, not dissimilar from a Request for Proposals with some additional steps.

The funds for this auction will come from the Alternative Compliance Payments of the Renewable Portfolio Standard and will total $100 million a year for two years. Any tier 1 renewable energy source that does not benefit from net metering can apply for the reverse auction. Battery storage projects can also apply.

The reverse auction will be run with the goal of causing as much new renewable energy generation to be built in Maryland at the lowest possible cost. MEA will also, to the extent practicable, ensure that only projects that need additional funds in order to get built benefit from the auction.

Allowing Reconciliation in Favor of Ratepayers

Public Utilities Article 4-213

In recent years, utilities have been using Multi-Year Rate Plans to determine how much to charge ratepayers. Part of multi-year ratemaking involves utilities anticipating how much their system will cost and then checking to see if their prediction was correct. Historically, if utilities underestimate their expenses, they could charge ratepayers for the difference between their guess and the actual costs. The Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 prohibited these plus-ups to utility profits.

The Utility RELIEF Act clarifies that there can be corrections to the anticipated cost if the result would be funds being returned to ratepayers.

Limiting Ratepayer Contribution to Excessive Salaries

Public Utilities 4-504

The Utility RELIEF Act allows private utilities to continue paying their executives as much as they want, but it specifies that utilities can only charge ratepayers for compensation of supervisors up to 110% of the compensation of the annual salary of the Chair of the Public Service Commission.

Net Metering Alterations

Public Utilities Article 7-306, 7-306.4

Historically, in Maryland, solar projects smaller than 5 megawatts have been able to participate in the net metering program. This means that when they sell electricity back to the grid, the owner of the solar project is paid the full retail cost of electricity. Maryland has previously set a cap of 3,000 megawatt for how much net metered solar can be built in the state.

The Utility RELIEF Act clarifies that the existing net metering program will end on July 1 2027, unless the 3,000 megawatt cap is hit before then. After July 1 2027, the Public Service Commission shall develop a replacement program for the net metering program. This replacement program will compensate solar projects smaller than 5 megawatts for the value that distributed solar generation provides to the grid, but the compensation will be much smaller than the current compensation.

The Utility RELIEF Act also sets regional caps for how much net metered solar can be built under the existing framework. Specifically, for small utility service areas, the cap will be set at 150% of the net metered solar capacity installed on April 1 2026. For larger utility service areas there will be no regional net metering cap.

The Utility RELIEF Act also adds some flexibility to the July 1 2027 deadline, saying that if a project has a queue position and has paid a deposit for the necessary grid upgrades, then that project can still participate in the net metering program even if it is placed in service after July 1 2027.

Forecasted Test Years

Public Utilities Article 7-505

Part of the process of multi year rate plans has included forecasted ratemaking. Forecasted ratemaking is a process where a utility projects what their investments and costs will look like in a hypothetical future year, then develops a budget based on those investments and costs that is used to raise rates. The utility can then use the budget to invest in those projections or different projects at their discretion. Forecasted ratemaking gives the utilities the ability to inflate their budgets and grow rates faster compared to standard ratemaking practices that depend on actual costs rather than forecasts.

The Utility RELIEF Act prohibits the use of forecasted test years until April 1, 2027 or until the PSC has completed a study on the impacts of forecasted test years, whichever is later.

Buying Bigger Batteries

Public Utilities Article 7-1224, 7-1225

The Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 sets up a procurement for utility scale battery storage through the PSC. This procurement process was limited to 800 megawatts in 2026 and 800 megawatts in 2027, for a total of 1.6 gigawatts of battery storage procurement over two years.

The Utility RELIEF Act clarifies that the PSC can procure more than 800 megawatts of battery storage in 2026 and in 2027 if it determines the battery storage to be cost-effective and in the interest of ratepayers. This technically means there is no hard, statutory upper bound on how much battery storage could be procured by the PSC.

The Utility RELIEF Act also clarifies that front-of-the-meter energy storage devices can qualify for this procurement process.

LMI Community Solar Auto-Enrollment Study

Chapter 623-4 of the Acts of 2025

Community Solar relies on individuals choosing to opt-in to the program. Doing so guarantees you an automatic reduction in your energy bills because solar energy is so affordable. Current law requires that a percentage of all the people who subscribe to a community solar project be low-moderate income (LMI). However, sometimes community solar projects have had trouble getting enough LMI sign ups.

The Utility RELIEF Act conducts a study on what it would look like to switch to a model where LMI households are switched to an opt-out system for community solar rather than an opt-in system.

Identifying sites for new power plants

The Utility RELIEF Act directs the Power Plant Research Program (PPRP) to identify up to 50 priority energy sites suitable for new or expanded generation stations or energy storage devices. PPRP will also identify current bottlenecks and barriers that extend state and local permitting timelines and develop recommendations on what a state-level zoning or permitting structure should look like in order to promote fast-tracked development at the priority energy sites.

By Jamie DeMarco, initially published in Maryland Energy Talk.