Despite a head start on the rest of Maryland's utilities, Baltimore Gas & Electricis falling short in promoting energy efficiency among its customers, says a new report.

The Maryland PIRG Foundationsays BGE is likely to achieve only 52 percent of the energy savings it needs to by 2011 under the state's EmPOWER Maryland law.  The 2008 law calls for a 15 percent reduction in energy use statewide by 2015, with utilities responsible for two-thirds of the savings and the state on the hook for the other 5 percent cutback.

The good news is that BGEs energy efficiency programs are up and running, Maryland PIRG State Director Johanna Neumann said in a statement. The bad news is that BGE was slow to get started and its plans fall far short of the energy savings Marylanders desperately need.

BGE's actually begun promoting energy efficiency ahead of the state's other utilities, but MaryPIRG's analysis suggests those efforts are not enough to get to the goal.  By 2015, BGE is likely to have achieved only 63 percent of the savings it needs, the report says.  Other utilities, though behind BGE in ramping up their efforts, appear to have plans that would achieve more savings - but MaryPIRG says none are currently planning to do enough to get to the goal.

BGE thinks MaryPIRG is being a tad harsh.  Mark Case, a senior vice president of the utiility, says the company deserves credit for launching its energy-efficiency programs within weeks of when the state Public Service Commission approved them.  Residential customers have been flocking to them since, he says, particularly those aimed at curbing air conditioning bills in summer. Businesses were slow last year to jump in because of the grim economy, he says, but there's signs of more interest now.

Case does agree that the state's energy-saving goal won't be reached without some radical boost in effort.  That "game changer," he contends, is BGE's Smart Grid plan, which would enable the utility to give its customers real-time information on their energy consumption.  A pilot program the utility tried shows customers are likely to cut back if they're more aware of how much energy they're using and what it's costing them.  The PSC is still studying the proposal.

Read article at Bay and Environment web site