Rate increases · Delmarva Power
Why is my Delmarva Power bill going up in 2025–26?
Your Delmarva Power bill went up, and it's not your imagination or just the AC. PJM-driven wholesale supply costs raised Delmarva's Maryland standard-offer rate.
The key facts
- Delmarva Power's Standard Offer Service (Price to Compare) rose , effective June 1, 2025.
- The driver is the PJM capacity market, where the price spiked from $28.92 to $269.92/MW-day (about 830%).
- Exelon reported about $2.5 billion in 2024 profit — but not from this supply charge (it's a pass-through). See the Delmarva Power Report Card →
Source: Maryland PSC — SOS order (2025). Rates reset on a schedule — confirm the current figure before relying on it.
What's actually driving it
Think of the PJM capacity market as a retainer fee. Every year the regional grid operator pays power plants to promise they'll be available on the worst-demand days — the January cold snap, the August heat wave — even if they sit idle the rest of the time. You're not paying for electricity here; you're paying to keep the plants on call. That retainer spiked, and it flows onto the supply line of your bill.
The price went from $28.92/MW-day to $269.92 (about 830%), peaked at $333.44 in December 2025, and the July 2026 auction cleared at $325 — the 3rd consecutive auction pinned at the FERC-approved cap, while the region fell 6,831 MW short of its reliability requirement. Why? Electricity demand is rising fast — led by data centers, plus electrification and economic growth. Older power plants are retiring faster than new ones can connect to the grid. Source: PJM Interconnection — 2028/2029 Base Residual Auction results (July 14, 2026).
What's already decided for Delmarva Power bills — the three dates that matter
- · Today: your current rate carries the July 2025 auction's costs ($329.17/MW-day) — the increase that took effect June 1, 2025.
- · Around June 2027: the December 2025 auction — the most expensive in PJM history ($333.44) — flows into the next reset. Expect another step up, not relief.
- · Around June 2028: the July 2026 auction ($325, at the cap again) keeps costs at essentially the maximum through May 2029.
Exact bill impacts depend on each reset's full supply procurement — these auction prices are the locked-in capacity component. PROJECTION beyond the current confirmed rate.
Will bills go down? The plain-English answer →Is Delmarva Power pocketing this?
This lands on the supply (generation) part of your bill, which on a default/standard rate is a pass-through — your utility buys the power and bills it through with no markup. The utility's own profit lives in the separate delivery (distribution) charge, set in a rate case.
What you can actually do
- Check usage vs. rate. A higher rate and a hot month stack up. Pull your kWh from last month and compare it to the same month last year — it tells you how much is the rate and how much is the weather.
- Check whether you're overpaying on supply. If a third-party supplier is charging more than Delmarva Power's Standard Offer Service (Price to Compare), that's a fixable overcharge — but switching rarely beats a capacity-driven default rate, so compare honestly first. Run the free, private audit → Should you shop in Maryland? → How to use the Maryland OPC shopping guide, Maryland's official comparison tool →
- If the bill is more than you can cover, there's real help — assistance programs, payment plans, and your shutoff protections. Bill help in Maryland →
The fuller picture on Delmarva Power
A rate increase is one number. Here's the context most coverage skips: in 2024, Delmarva Power disconnected about 4.1 households per 100 customers for nonpayment. Its parent, Exelon, cleared about $2.5 billion in 2024.
See the full Delmarva Power Report Card → Compare every utility on rates, reliability, disconnections and profit →Common questions
- How much is the Delmarva Power rate increase?
- Delmarva Power's Standard Offer Service (Price to Compare) rose effective June 1, 2025.
- Why is my Delmarva Power bill going up?
- PJM-driven wholesale supply costs raised Delmarva's Maryland standard-offer rate.
- Is Delmarva Power making more profit from this?
- Not from the supply increase itself — that's a pass-through with no markup. Exelon (the parent company) reported about $2.5 billion in profit in 2024, but that comes from the delivery/distribution side and its other businesses, not from marking up the power you buy. This lands on the supply (generation) part of your bill, which on a default/standard rate is a pass-through — your utility buys the power and bills it through with no markup. The utility's own profit lives in the separate delivery (distribution) charge, set in a rate case.
- Will switching suppliers lower my Delmarva Power bill?
- Often not. When the increase is a capacity-driven default rate, a competitive supplier is buying from the same wholesale market — and many switchers end up paying more after a teaser rate resets. Compare any offer against Delmarva Power's Standard Offer Service (Price to Compare) first, and only take a fixed, full-term rate that genuinely beats it.
Last reviewed June 18, 2026. Default-supply rates reset on a schedule and rate cases move — confirm the current figure with Maryland PSC — SOS order (2025) or your bill before relying on it. The exact summer-2025 ¢/kWh figure wasn't independently confirmable, so we describe the direction (up) rather than quote a number; a small monthly bill credit applied. Verify the current rate with the PSC. This is general consumer information, not legal or financial advice.
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