Maryland’s winter shutoff protection for low-income utility customers starts Sunday, Nov. 1, and runs through March 31. Last winter, about one in four customers who qualified for it were enrolled.
The program, the Utility Service Protection Program, enrolled 25,057 customers in the 2025-2026 heating season out of 97,640 customers certified for the Maryland Energy Assistance Program, a participation rate of 26%, according to the Public Service Commission’s annual report on the program, dated Sept. 23. That left 72,583 eligible customers outside it (Table 2). The rate was 47% the winter before and 59% in 2023-2024, the report says.
Enrollment barely moved; the pool of eligible customers grew. BGE’s count of customers certified for energy assistance jumped from 12,018 to 57,579, while its enrollment in the protection program rose from 11,657 to 13,192, the report says.
Enrollment by utility, 2025-2026
What the program does
Under the state’s rules (COMAR 20.31.05), an enrolled customer pays an equal monthly amount based on a year of usage, minus the household’s energy assistance grant. A customer who misses two monthly payments in a row can be removed from the program and have service cut off, and a utility must send at least one warning first. Enrollment does not block every shutoff: other grounds in the state’s general termination rules still apply.
Last winter, 570 enrolled customers were cut off anyway, down from 920 the winter before and 1,285 the year before that; BGE accounted for 72%, the report says. The average energy assistance grant to enrolled households was $347, up from $249 the winter before but well below the $650 of 2021-2022.
A new participant whose service has already been shut off can get it reconnected by enrolling and bringing the past-due balance down to $400, with no reconnection fee or new deposit (COMAR 20.31.05.08).
How to sign up
Enrollment starts with an application for the Maryland Energy Assistance Program, run by the Department of Human Services’ Office of Home Energy Programs. Apply online at benefits.maryland.gov, at a local home energy office, or by calling 1-800-332-6347. The office sends the approval to the utility, and the customer signs an agreement to the payment plan (COMAR 20.31.05.05). Utilities are required to offer the program before November each year, the report says.
BGE shutoffs since the summer
BGE resumed residential shutoffs in July after a pause of about six months, as originally reported by Maryland Matters. BGE’s monthly filing to the Public Service Commission for July 2026 reports 606 residential shutoffs that month, all of them customers not classified as low-income (sheet N, Effective Terminations).