Baltimore Gas & Electric Company - Natural Gas Connection Program

The Baltimore Gas & Electric Company (BGE) Natural Gas Connection Program helps residential customers who currently heat with electricity, oil or propane switch to natural gas. Qualifying customers receive a discount of up to $2,000 off the price of extending a gas service line to the home.

Eligibility. The offer is for BGE residential electric customers; new construction homes and commercial properties are excluded. To earn the service line discount you must install qualifying gas equipment within 30 days of BGE completing the gas meter installation, and the work must be done by a Natural Gas Connection Program participating contractor.

• If your current heating source is electric — a heat pump, for example — you must install at least one of a high efficiency natural gas furnace or a high efficiency ENERGY STAR certified gas water heater, tank or tankless.
• If your current heating source is oil or propane, you must already have a standalone electric water heater and must replace it with a high efficiency ENERGY STAR certified gas water heater.
• If you keep an existing heat pump and add a gas furnace as a backup heating source, or run the heat pump as an air conditioner only, you qualify only by also replacing the electric water heater with an ENERGY STAR certified gas water heater.

Equipment rebates. A high efficiency ENERGY STAR certified gas water heater earns a $150 rebate through the Natural Gas Connection Program. A high efficiency gas furnace earns a $300 rebate through the separate BGE Smart Energy Savers Program. Installing both appliances within 30 days of the meter installation may qualify for both rebates.

Costs that remain. A $40 Service Application Fee is added to the BGE bill once the service line is installed, and that fee is not eligible for the program discount. BGE quotes a firm price for the service line extension; any amount above the discount, the internal piping and the appliances themselves are the customer's cost.

BGE no longer publishes a web page for this program. The terms above are taken from BGE's current Natural Gas Connection Program Service Agreement, cited as the source for this record. Earlier versions of this record described the benefit as a waiver of a $2,000 connection charge; the agreement sets it out as a discount of up to $2,000 against the service line extension price, with the $40 application fee expressly excluded.