Request for Feedback: Limited-Income Mechanism

The goal of LIM is to provide utility bill credits to help ensure eligible households spend no more than 6 percent of their income on energy costs. Eligible households would include residential members who qualify for energy assistance through the Maryland Office of Home Energy Programs (OHEP). The program will be funded through a surcharge on the electric bill that will be paid by other residential and commercial members.

Following guidance from the PSC, Maryland utilities, including SMECO, have been working to develop the program. On February 12, 2026, the PSC approved next steps to move the LIM program forward, with a goal for implementation before January 1, 2027.  Discussions are still underway about how those costs should be allocated.

The PSC wants to ensure commercial and industrial customers have an opportunity to learn about the program and provide their feedback on proposed cost allocation methods. Last year, SMECO filed a recommendation with the PSC to adopt a cost-allocation methodology that would assign 75 percent of the program costs to residential members and 25 percent of the program costs to commercial and industrial members. The recommendation took into account that beneficiaries of the program will be residential members (approximately 90 percent of SMECO’s member base), so making commercial and industrial members pay a larger share of program costs wouldn’t align with the standard practice of assigning costs based on who would cause and benefit from them. The PSC has not made a decision on cost allocation—in response to SMECO’s recommendation or otherwise—and such a decision will now be made by the PSC later this year following SMECO’s submission of a modification to its Retail Electric Service Tariff that describes the LIM program and associated benefits (bill credits for eligible residential customer) and charges (reflective of a particular cost allocation methodology). The PSC has indicated its intention to consider feedback from commercial and industrial customers as part of its review of SMECO’s Tariff updates.

We have included a form below for your feedback about this program and the proposed cost-sharing methods. All submissions will be forwarded to the PSC PC 59 Working Group for consideration and may also be passed on directly to the PSC Commissioners. Please provide your feedback by July 1, 2026.

In addition, a virtual stakeholder meeting will be held on July 9, 2026, from 10 to 11 a.m. Please use the form below to RSVP to the meeting on July 9.