Demand for energy continues to outpace supply, resulting in higher energy prices and exasperation from Delmarva Power & Light customers, who expressed their frustration Aug. 19.

During a public comment session hosted by the Public Service Commission, Delmarva Power customers largely came out against the electricity rate hike proposed for later this year.

Delmarva Power opened its rate increase case with the PSC in 2025, now requesting approval of a 21.7% increase over the previous rate. The latest revision asks for a total of $68.6 million, but there are two increase options for a customer using 826 kilowatt hours a month. One would be a $9.31 increase, if the Distribution System Improvement Charge is included, and the other option is $5.64 if the DSIC is excluded.

The DSIC is part of delivery charges, including the base rate, that make up a customer's total bill. Also included in a customer bill is a supply charge not controlled by Delmarva Power.

Supply costs are determined from yearly energy auctions run by grid operator PJM Interconnection, which has witnessed a sharp increase in recent years.

The 2027/28 energy auction resulted in the supply cost of power per megawatt day rising to $333.44 – about $4 more than the price in 2026/27 of $329.17. However, it was the 2025/26 price of $269.92 that posted the sharpest increase, $241 more than the $28.92 price in 2024/25, according to PJM Interconnection press releases.

A downslide could be on the horizon after a 2.5% decrease or about $8 for a total of $325 was announced July 14 following the 2028/29 auction. The governors of all 13 PJM states and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission capped the price – the third consecutive auction with a price collar, according to a PJM press release.

PJM continues to point to a supply-demand imbalance in power generation – a warning it has issued since 2023.

“These auction results show that demand for electricity continues to grow faster than electricity supply,” said David Mills, PJM president and CEO, in a statement. “At the same time, PJM recognizes how this supply-and-demand imbalance impacts the reliability of the system and costs for consumers. We are working with government and industry leaders on multiple fronts to restore that balance by bringing on new generation as fast as possible and managing the growth of new load on the grid.” 

Jeff Shields, senior manager of external communications for PJM, said the biggest driver in the supply/demand imbalance comes from data centers, which account for 30 gigawatts of peak load between 2024 and 2030 out of the 32 GW forecasted.

“That has been exacerbated by the retirement of fossil fuel generation due to government policies and/or basic economics. The third factor in all of this has been the relatively slow build of new generation,” Shields said.

Since 2020, Shields said, PJM has processed about 324 GW worth of new service requests from generation resources that wanted to connect to the grid. So far, he said, agreements have been signed allowing 103 GW to connect to the grid.

“At that point, they are clear to build and have no requirements from PJM,” Shields said.

But of those, he said, only 25 GW have been built. Another 27 GW have withdrawn, and 51 GW are not moving forward fast enough to keep pace with data center demand, Shields said.

“Developers attribute various obstacles holding them back, including local opposition, state permitting, supply chain bottlenecks and financing,” he said.

PSC approves electric transmission charge

A charge for transmission – part of supply costs to transport power to local distributors – is also factored into a customer’s bill. On Aug. 19, the PSC approved a monthly 49-cent increase for customers using 811 kilowatt hours a month.

Public Advocate Jameson Tweedie said during the meeting that his office does not oppose the increase, but it is one of several going up as part of a customer’s electric bill, and the customers are getting squeezed.

Already, PSC approved in July an interim rate increase of about $1 a month for average customers, pending final approval of Delmarva Power’s base rate request.

During the recent public comment session, dozens of customers voiced their concerns with the increase during the public hearing.

Rehoboth Beach resident Kenneth Reuter, who testified he was involved in the power industry during his professional career and recently was part of the Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force, pointed out that the cost of power generation is a major factor in the high energy prices, particularly when Delaware imports about half of its power from elsewhere.

“We have as a state watched the Indian River power plant fundamentally close, with the exception of one combustion turbine peaker, and all of that power is not in the mix anymore, which raises the amount of power that has to be imported to the state,” he said. 

The principal driver of Delaware’s energy bills, Reuter said, is the cost that Delmarva Power has to pay for the purchase power agreement to bring power into the state. Moving forward, he stressed power generation for the state should be a focus of the General Assembly.

“Until and unless this state wakes up to the fact that generation is woefully lacking in the state – and we become less obsessed with solar and wind, which are nondispatchable, intermittent sources of generation – until we get base load improvements of generation, all the people that spoke today will continue to see their electric bills rise at a higher-than-what-should-be rate.”

Port Penn resident Jim Servino raised concern over Delaware’s plan to be net zero by 2050.

“We had power plants that should never have been dismantled. They should’ve been rebuilt,” he said. “There are other options that we need to pursue. We need to make our own energy and not be dependent on other states to supply our energy.”

Other New Castle County residents spoke against the pending increase, but many supported the surcharge added to bills to help low-income residents pay their bills.

The low-income charge is one of several added to a customer’s bill each month, and the amount is based on a customer’s energy usage.

Bill surcharges include state-mandated charges for the following: the Green Energy Fund, an Energy Efficiency Investment Fund, a charge to pay for energy produced by Bloom Energy fuel cells, and charges for wind and solar energy required by law as part of Delaware’s Renewable Energy Portfolio. 

Those state-mandated charges added about $16 for a recent electric customer bill that totalled $290.50.  

A handful of representatives of groups that receive money from Delmarva Power and Light spoke in favor of the Delmarva Power’s community investment, such as the Work Group of Wilmington, Junior Achievement and Delaware State University.

Still, others questioned executive compensation packages, which along with a 10.5% rate of return for investors proposed by Delmarva Power’s publicly traded parent company Exelon, they said are too much.

Newark resident Kristina Kelly said Delmarva Power should stop asking for more money when families are already struggling to pay their bills now.

“Delaware families cannot afford another increase,” she said. “Those are families sitting at their kitchen tables trying to decide which bill they can afford to pay.”

She also took issue with executive compensation, which includes almost $16 million for Exelon President and CEO Calvin G. Butler Jr. as reported in a 2025 Securities and Exchange statement, and other 2025 Delmarva Power salaries that run $400,000 to $700,000, according to a filing with the Public Service Commission of Maryland.

Resident Jakim Mohammed agreed the salaries are too high.

“I want this commission to do the work of the people, for the people, and reject this increase,” he said. “There is no way in the world that Delmarva should be allowed to be increasing and putting people in harm’s way when it’s not necessary.”

Computer glitch

A second public comment session has been scheduled after a Zoom glitch during the Aug. 19 session that kept some people offline. The second session will be held from 6 to 10 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 23, with sign-in and location information available under Public Service Commission at publicmeetings.delaware.gov.

The Public Service Commission will ultimately make a decision on the rate increase at a later date.