Your Local Gas Companies

Natural gas is provided to customers in Maryland by local distribution utilities. There are three major utilities providing gas supply and service in Maryland.

BGE is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation. The utility provides gas and electricity service in central Maryland, including Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Anne Arundel Counties, most of Howard, Carroll and Harford Counties, and parts of Prince George’s, Montgomery and Calvert Counties.

WGL is an affiliate of WGL Holdings, Inc. The utility provides service in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, as well as Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s Counties. In addition to Maryland, WGL is regulated in two other regions, the District of Columbia and Virginia. WGL as a multi-jurisdictional utility coordinates its gas supply and service for customers in all three jurisdictions.

Columbia Gas is an affiliate of Nisource, Inc., a large gas utility with operations extending to areas of the Midwest as well as its Maryland service territory. Columbia Gas serves customers in a service territory within the Western Maryland counties of Washington, Allegany and Garrett Counties.

There also are some smaller gas utilities which are for-profit companies or municipal utilities. These smaller utilities are regulated by the MD Public Service Commission and include Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, Penn Fuel Gas, Inc., Elkton Gas Company, Easton Utilities Commission and Eastern Shore Gas Company.

Each local utility has been granted a franchise from the MD PSC to operate a distribution pipeline and provide gas supply on behalf of its customers within its service territory, PSC Service Areas. The distribution pipeline rights are exclusive to the franchised utility.  The MD PSC has the responsibility to regulate the gas utilities in the public interest, and to ensure safe and reliable service at reasonable cost.  The MD PSC must review and approve the distribution rates of each utility. In addition, the MD PSC conducts “prudence” reviews of gas purchasing practices of each gas utility.

Maryland law also permits natural gas suppliers  to offer gas supply to retail customers, including residential customers, in addition to the regulated gas utility.  The suppliers must have a license from the MD PSC and comply with the law and MD PSC regulations.  Supplier prices are not subject to regulation.