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.

In addition to the three main utilities, there are also smaller natural gas companies in Maryland. These may be for-profit businesses or run by local governments (called municipal utilities). Some of these include Chesapeake Utilities Corporation, Penn Fuel Gas, Elkton Gas Company, Easton Utilities, and Eastern Shore Gas Company. These smaller utilities are regulated by the Maryland Public Service Commission (MD PSC).

Each utility has a special license (called a franchise) from the MD PSC to operate gas pipelines and provide gas to customers in a specific area. Only that utility can run gas pipelines in its assigned area. The MD PSC makes sure these utilities provide safe, reliable service at fair prices. It also reviews and approves the rates they charge and checks how they buy gas to make sure they’re being reasonable.

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.