Utility Bills

Maryland lawmakers are buffeted by powerful business interests and concerns about rising consumer electricity bills as they consider a plan to overhaul the power market. Sound familiar? That was 1999, and they chose to deregulate the industry. A decade later, the same scenario is playing out, but many of those same lawmakers have come to the opposite conclusion - that the state should move back to a regulated market. The about-face in the General Assembly reflects deep-seated fears about constituents being subjected to ever-increasing utility bills.

State leaders failed to protect ratepayers The arrival of the 50 percent electricity rate increase demonstrates the dismal failure of our elected officials to protect their constituents ("BGE rates arrive quietly," June 1). Where are the champions of last summer who promised to take action against Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Constellation Energy? It's all fine and well to blame former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and his rubber-stamp Public Service Commission. But we were promised solutions, not finger-pointing.

HOWEVER MUCH you love your house, there is probably something about it that drives you crazy -- a room that's always cold, a door that opens the wrong way, a faucet that will not stop dripping.Honeywell, which makes control devices such as thermostats for home and office use, did a survey to find out what people like least about their abodes. (The telephone survey, taken in August, covered 1,000 homeowners, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.) Here are the top 10 "pet peeves":1.

The cash-strapped Ravens, who suffered the wrath of strict lenders earlier this year, have received leniency from their landlords in city and state government on more than $2.5 million in bills.The football team hasn't paid any of the utility bills on its training facility in Owings Mills in the more than three years it has occupied the city-owned complex, and now owes $425,753.17, city real estate officer Anthony J. Ambridge said yesterday.The city failed to bill the Ravens until this month due to a bureaucratic mix-up, Ambridge said.

To prevent the debt-ridden Avenue Market from having its power turned off, the Board of Estimates approved $200,000 in city funds yesterday to help the faltering operation pay its utility bills and other debts.Half of the money will be held until the market provides city officials with its audited financial reports from fiscal year 1999, which ended June 30. The city will allocate $100,000 immediately to help the market pay for security personnel and a $50,000 utility bill that had accumulated in the last three months.

For consumers who want to stay cool this summer but don't want to worry about surprises on their electric bills, many utility companies offer a way of spreading out the pain: equal payments over the course of a year.But are such plans good deals?The plans have many names: budget billing, level billing and so on. The goal is to even out the peaks and valleys associated with higher costs of heating in the winter and cooling in the summer.In a typical plan, the utility takes the customer's bills for the previous 12 months and averages them.

A FEW LONGTIME tenants of the rotting Riverdale Village apartments in Essex may have shed a tear when the place shut down this week. Most folks in the neighborhood, though, say, "Good riddance," to a housing complex that has long been an eyesore, unsafe and a breeding ground for illicit activity.The beginning of the end came a month ago, when Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. announced it would cut off power at Riverdale on June 11 because absentee slumlord Richard Schlesinger has not paid $600,000 in utility bills.

With a power shut-off looming at the rundown Riverdale Village apartments in Essex, hundreds of tenants are preparing for their forced migration, which is expected to begin in earnest this weekend.A combined force of Baltimore County social workers and community organizers has interviewed 281 tenants and is helping many make arrangements to move -- even as absentee landlord Richard Schlesinger's workers try to fill units with new renters."I don't understand why they continue to rent. That's hard to take," Nancy Bush, 57, a six-year Riverdale Village resident, said yesterday.

The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. plans next month to begin a pilot program aimed at assisting low-income Baltimore City residents with utility bills, a measure a state office representing the public interest claims will help people who are struggling financially.BGE's cooperation in the voluntary plan is unusual because in most other states such programs have been enacted only through legislation or because of a mandate from regulatory agencies.Under the two-year pilot program, approved yesterday by the state's Public Service Commission, 350 low-income city residents will pay a fraction of their utility bills based on their total projected incomes and energy use."

In May, members of the Anne Arundel County Council approved a water and sewer rate hike, needed to cover a $5.7 million deficit last year, with the increase to take effect July 5. Yet when homeowners in Linthicum and the Broadneck received their utility bills for April, May and June, there was the higher rate!The county had "back-billed" them; in other words, it retroactively charged homeowners on certain billing cycles in order to collect the needed revenues over a longer period. That way, the rate hike didn't need to be as high and people presumably wouldn't mind it as much.

The first home Mette Ramanathan and her husband considered buying was a 2,200-square-foot, five-bedroom place. It was too big for the couple, who were interested in space efficiency and lower utility costs. So they settled on a considerably smaller three-bedroom Cape Cod in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood. The larger house was "not only expensive but you're using and wasting an awful lot of space," said Ramanathan, who moved in May. "Even if we start a family, we don't need five bedrooms to start a family."

Thanks to $300,000 from Maryland state government, about 30 older Columbia townhouses owned by a nonprofit and occupied by low- and moderate-income families will get a major energy-saving makeover in coming months. Howard County's Community Action Agency applied for enough money to replace windows, heating and cooling equipment and hot-water heaters, and to install digital "smart" thermostats in about 10 percent of the nearly 40-year-old homes in Wilde Lake and Harper's Choice owned by the Columbia Housing Corp.

This 1914 rowhouse will offer more green features than standard energy-efficient appliances. There will be bamboo floors, insulation made from old newspapers, a light-colored roof that reflects the sun and more. It's one of many area homes getting the eco-treatment, a movement growing in appeal with homeowners who want to lower utility bills and tread lightly on the planet. Only this house in Remington is being rehabbed by real estate investors. And when they put it on the market next month, it may illustrate just how far the trend has come - investors, lenders and construction companies of all sizes are joining governments, nonprofit groups and private owners in accepting that going green can make green, as in money.

Think your BGE bill is high? Meet the Glaun family of Owings Mills. Their electricity bill last month topped $900. And that was a major improvement over January, when they had to pay a whopping $1,151. "It's quite embarrassing," said Kim Glaun, who says she turns off lights in empty rooms and lowers the thermostat at night. "We feel like there's a big hole in our house." Turns out, their house is full of little holes that appeared last week as purple splotches captured by an infrared camera that "sees" invisible cold pockets - evidence that chilly air is invading a home as warmth escapes.

Maryland lawmakers are buffeted by powerful business interests and concerns about rising consumer electricity bills as they consider a plan to overhaul the power market. Sound familiar? That was 1999, and they chose to deregulate the industry. A decade later, the same scenario is playing out, but many of those same lawmakers have come to the opposite conclusion - that the state should move back to a regulated market. The about-face in the General Assembly reflects deep-seated fears about constituents being subjected to ever-increasing utility bills.

Gov. Martin O'Malley asked the Maryland Public Service Commission yesterday to consider delaying the April 1 cutoff date for customers who are delinquent on their utility bills. "I am writing to urge the PSC to do everything in its power to help our families and consumers keep the electricity on," O'Malley said in a letter to PSC Chairman Douglas Nazarian. O'Malley said he wants the PSC to use the additional time to determine what prompted an unusual spike in bills and to develop alternative payment plans for consumers.

Nearly 84,000 households with delinquent utility bills could see their power shut off by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. starting next month, when restrictions meant to protect customers during cold winter months end, the state's top energy regulator warned. Douglas Nazarian, chairman of the state's Public Service Commission, called the situation facing consumers a "potential tsunami," as many residents have seen their utility bills rise, and in some cases double. In all of last year, about 36,000 BGE customers had their service terminated.

Gov. Martin O'Malley laid out a blueprint yesterday for a partial return to a regulated energy industry, rejecting a decade-old policy that was intended to lower consumer prices through market competition but is widely regarded as a failure. In the midst of an outcry over budget-busting utility bills, O'Malley unveiled a plan that would allow the state to regulate future power plants if such a move is determined to be in the best interest of customers. The proposal also would allow the state to decide when new plants are built, taking that authority from utilities.

Helen Brierley turned off her heat pump and has been air-drying her dishes. Amina Gauhar hangs her laundry on a clothes rack and even avoids the vacuum cleaner. Both have turned their thermostats way down. But despite efforts to conserve energy, their utility bills - like those of other Maryland residents - have doubled or even tripled during the past few months. As Maryland regulators and utility executives scramble to explain the sticker shock to thousands of angry customers, the Maryland Public Service Commission set up a hearing this week to address the sharp number of complaints.

Even before the mercury fell and the economy tanked, thousands more Marylanders were seeking help with utility bills than in years past. "We've had an upswing since probably last April," said Peggy Vick, director of family and volunteer services for the Salvation Army. Given the rising costs of food and fuel, "as soon as the BGE rates went up, people ... were hard-pressed in order to pay their bills." But help from state programs, nonprofits and charities is available for struggling families who meet income guidelines.