After improving its customer service, BGE can resume utility shutoffs July 15

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.’s temporary moratorium on utility shutoffs for overdue bills is ending on July 15.

The Maryland Public Service Commission had issued an order in late February prohibiting the company from turning off natural gas and electricity services until BGE fixed issues with its call center.

Customers who called BGE in December had to wait an average of 2 days for a callback, filings show, and more than 6,000 customers never received one at all. As of May, BGE had improved those metrics. Almost every customer received a callback, filings show, with customers waiting an average of about 14 hours.

Now, as the Baltimore region emerges from a dayslong heat dome, BGE will soon restart service shutoffs for nonpayment.

More than 106,000 final notices were sent out in December, shortly before the moratorium took effect, according to data filed by BGE to state regulators.

Commissioners ordered the pause after BGE customers filed more than 650 complaints against the company between July and November 2025. Many of those customers said they endured hourslong hold times, call disconnections, a callback system that never returned calls, and difficulties with the website and phone application.

The commission barred BGE from shutting off customers’ utilities until at least April 1. In May, BGE filed a petition to resume collections and shutoffs of overdue accounts.

The average time customers spent on hold decreased from two hours to about 25 minutes, BGE said, and it increased the number of call center agents from 146 in December to 158 in May. The company also hired 45 contract workers to prevent gaps in coverage, and some employees were reassigned to assist the call center during peak call times.

As part of the moratorium’s end, BGE is required to file monthly and quarterly reports on its call center metrics for three years.

The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, the state’s ratepayer advocate, said the reduction in callback times likely had little to do with improvements made by BGE to its call center. The more likely culprit, the advocate said, is that fewer people were calling BGE because the utility had paused shutoffs.

Except in cases of prolonged, extreme heat, shutoffs for nonpayment can start back up next week.