The Maryland Public Service Commission has issued an order to Baltimore-based Ohms Energy Co. directing the licensed electricity supplier not to add or solicit additional customers in Maryland until further notice.
OEC was scheduled to appear at a hearing before the commission Wednesday afternoon to explain why the company is unable to provide electricity to about 2,100 residential and commercial customers throughout Maryland.
The commission will likely make a decision regarding OEC?s electricity license today, PSC spokeswoman LaWanda Edwards said.
“In our opinion, [OEC is] technically suspended anyway,” Edwards said. “It?s just a matter of, ?Where do we go from here?? ”
On Monday, OEC notified the commission that the company stood in default of its collateral call and invoice payment obligations to PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission agency that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity throughout Maryland.
PJM holds $392,000 on behalf of OEC as collateral, which would go toward paying OEC?s July invoice of $269,834 if OEC can?t pay the invoice by today.
“After heavy consideration, Ohms Energy at this time has no choice but to return its residential and commercial customers to [Provider of Last Resort] service,” Sheirmiar White, president of OEC, wrote to PSC Chairman Steven Larsen on Monday.
OEC?s customers have been transferred to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.?s Standard Offer Service. However, OEC is addressing its payment issues to PJM and intends to resume providing electricity in Maryland.
“Ohms Energy?s circumstances require immediate inquiry and action to ensure that Ohms Energy?s current consumers are treated fairly and that Ohms Energy is not offering electric service to Maryland customers that it cannot deliver,” O. Ray Bourland, executive secretary for the PSC, wrote in the order.
