(3/25) PJM, the Town’s electricity provider, is increasing its capacity rate to $1.7 million for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a 900% increase, forcing Thurmont residents to endure a 17.3% increase in their electric bills this May. This is in addition to the increase residents can expect on the electric base rates later this year, which is expected to be around 12.3%.
The Board told residents in attendance at the March 18 meeting that the 17.3% increase on electric bills is made by PJM, not the Town and therefore, the Board has no control over. "This is a rate that guarantees that we will have the capacity we need for our electric moving forward," Mayor John Kinnaird said. Chris Simms, a principal of Smart Utility Management, a consultant who researches energy management for the Town of Thurmont, explained that the Town would go into default with PJM if they didn’t pay the bill with its increases, cutting off the power to residents and businesses.
In total, residents will see an overall 29.6% increase to their electric bills, if the base rate increase is approved in August. Kinnaird assured residents that, while the rates are increasing, Thurmont will still have one of the cheapest electric rates in the State of Maryland, which Commissioner Marty Burns agreed with. The Mayor went on to explain that Thurmont also has better service than many other municipalities with fewer outages lasting longer than an hour, which will remain so after the rate increase. "We understand that this is going to be an extreme burden on our residents but I will say, it doesn’t lessen the pain any, but, at the end of the day, we’re still going to be one of the least expensive electric providers in the state of Maryland," Kinnaird said.
Burns spoke directly to the residents at the meeting, wanting to make sure they understood that PJM’s rate increase was not something they liked or even agreed with but that was necessary to keep the power on in Thurmont. "That’s what they’re charging us so it has to go up 17.3%. It’s just a pass through—we don’t make a dime off of it," Burns said.
Kinnaird reiterated to the residents in attendance that there would also be system upgrades with the price increase, in addition to continuing what he considers great service. Commissioner Bob Lookingbill pointed out that the price increases will help the Town stay on top of system maintenance, or the systems will eventually fail. "I can’t say enough to the folks that are out there listening how much time and thought and long hours we’ve put in trying to figure out a way around this, there just isn’t one," her said.
Kinnaird explained that the base rate increases are also necessary to keep up maintenance and the good service for Thurmont residents. While the Town is receiving a 3.5 million bond for the Moser Road Substation project, there have also been increases to the workforce and improvements to equipment since the last rate increase in 2018 that need to be accounted for financially. "We made a decision several years ago to make those changes to our electric department to make our service more consistent and more reliable for our residents.," Kinnaird said.
Burns explained to residents that while they are paying more for their electricity, they are also receiving better quality service. The 12.3% increase for the base rate will work out to a $12.89 hike for consumers who on average use 1,000 kWh per bill.
"We have to make these increases in order to get ourselves out of the hole on the electric department so we can get back to at least breaking even and hopefully having enough money leftover for future maintenance," Kinnaird said.
Simms will present Thurmont’s rate filing to the Power Service Commission for approval in August. The new rate will be put in place sometime after that hearing.
