CENTRVILLE, MD - Many Delmarva Power customers are expressing frustration over soaring electricity bills, with some reporting their charges have doubled or even tripled in recent months.
In response, Delmarva Power hosted workshop event with one-on-one meetings with customers to address concerns. Armed with receipts, residents showed power bills that spiked dramatically between December 2024 and February 2025.
One customer, of Queen Anne’s County, said her monthly bill used to be around $76 but recently surged to $395.
"I got an electric bill for $164.77, which is totally insane. There's no way," another customer, Virginia Thomas said. "I was expecting a bill to be $80 or $90," explained Thomas.
A Delmarva Power spokesperson acknowledged the high volume of customer complaints and said the company organized the event to provide answers.
Amber Burruezo, a spokesperson for Delmarva Power, attributed the increased bills to unseasonably cold weather.
"A lot of customers—and I myself have wondered this, too—if I set my thermostat at 65 and I've done nothing else different. Your house is having to work so much harder to keep up with those temperatures outside, and so your heat is running constantly to be able to keep up with that," Burruezo said.
But that explanation did little to ease concerns for customers like Ellen Campbell, another Queen Anne’s County resident.
"And when we were going out of town, we turned the circuit breaker to the hot water heater off, turned the thermostat down to 55," Campbell said.
Campbell said she was able to get some more information at the meeting.
"There's nothing they can do about the bill. They said it was just higher usage and a few more days on the bill. But she did check my next month's bill, and of course, with fewer days and warmer temperatures, it'll be $250 lower than it was," Campbell said. "They also will come out and double-check that my meter is running correctly."
With customers hoping for relief as temperatures rise, Delmarva Power said it plans to hold more events like this across the region in the coming weeks.