Exelon Brands a Court-Ordered $160M Refund as Its Promise While Fighting a $32M One

A refund the court ordered

On 17 July 2026 the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled 6-1↗ that the poles, wires and substations that move electricity count as "production activity" under Maryland's manufacturing sales tax exemption, so the state must refund those taxes with interest ¹. The dissent saw Potomac Edison as "the business of a middleman, not a manufacturer↗" ². The comptroller expects to pay out more than $250 million↗, about $280 million with interest, and Exelon's three Maryland utilities take $160 million of it: BGE $110 million, Pepco $30 million, Delmarva Power $20 million ³.

The comptroller called it ratepayer money

At the 24 September Board of Revenue Estimates meeting, Comptroller Brooke Lierman said she will follow a ruling she disagrees with, then demanded the money go back: "When utilities pay taxes, they recover those taxes through the rates that they charge their customers" ³. She wants every refunded dollar, interest included, credited to ratepayers and a full public accounting filed with the Public Service Commission ³⁴.

The release that called it a promise

Four days later, on 28 September, Exelon announced "BGE, Delmarva Power and Pepco to Deliver Tax Savings Directly to Maryland Customers↗" ⁵, calling the credit the fruit of a "decade-long pursuit of these refunds" and "another example of The Exelon Promise in action, taking practical steps today to provide relief" ⁴⁶. Timing, structure and customer allocation get settled with the state and the PSC; customers need do nothing yet ⁴. Exelon told WYPR the release was meant to clarify that returning the money had always been the plan ⁷.

The refund being fought at the same commission

Separately, the People's Counsel wants BGE (about $28 million) and Delmarva ($4.27 million) to return some $32.2 million in 2025 overcollections↗ ³⁸. Both declined: the Utility Relief Act allows such adjustments only going forward, so "the type of after-the-fact review that would be needed to refund a prior-year overcollection is no longer available under current law" ⁸. BGE adds its gas overcollection was outweighed by a bigger electric undercollection ⁸. The PSC's technical staff sided with the utilities' reading↗; the commission has not ruled ⁹.

The interest logic cuts both ways

The court awarded interest because "when the State takes the position that a tax is owed, the party sitting on the money bears the risk of being wrong" ¹. Exelon booked $2.768 billion of net income on $24.258 billion of revenue in FY2025 ¹⁰, so a $160 million credit is under 6% of one year's profit; against BGE's pending $8-a-month increase↗, after Pepco's approved $4, the pass-through reads as cheap goodwill ⁷.

One refund gets a press release; the other gets a legal defense. Next markers: the PSC's rulings on the People's Counsel's hearing request and on credit timing, and Potomac Edison's share of the payout, which is unquantified and uncommitted ⁷⁹.