Fast-Tracked and Flawed: An analysis of BGE’s 2025 Operation Pipeline Work
Maryland PIRG, Dec. 3, 2025
Over the last decade, Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) has failed to appropriately address the public safety risk it invokes to justify Operation Pipeline, its gas pipe replacement program. Under the STRIDE program, which has housed Operation Pipeline, BGE can charge customers for gas infrastructure replacements more quickly. Instead of implementing a program that optimizes investment for risk reduction, the company is conducting a broad and expensive system-wide pressure conversion.
Key findings
BGE’s 2025 Operation Pipeline project list indicates that BGE’s 2025 work to convert its system from low to medium pressure appears to drive project selection decisions more than risk scores do.
BGE’s Operation Pipeline pressure conversion work may be slowing BGE’s work to repair or replace cast iron and bare steel throughout the company’s service territory.
BGE’s STRIDE related work, including Operation Pipeline, is a key driver in escalating delivery rates. If BGE completes its proposed $4 billion in STRIDE-related spending, the Office of the People’s Counsel projects that customers will repay a total of $19.5 billion over time, including interest and utility profits.
In 2025, the Maryland General Assembly and Governor Moore took bipartisan action by passing the Next Generation Energy Act. The new law includes provisions to ensure spending on gas pipeline projects prioritizes safety and is cost effective and may mean a new direction for BGE and Operation Pipeline.