When Gabrielle Elkaim got hit with a $1,200 utility bill several years ago, she took swift action.

The Charles Village resident hired an inspector to recommend energy-saving fixes. She sealed her windows with plastic, caulked the cracks and insulated under her porch. Her monthly utility bill dropped by half, she said, but only for so long.

Her bill crept up to $630 in December 2022, then to $749 in December 2023. This past month brought an $883 hit. What else can she do?

“We’re at our wit’s end,” she said.

The months ahead look bleak, too, as the new year brings a double whammy to Marylanders’ wallets. Below-average temperatures and an impending winter storm are colliding with planned Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. rate hikes.

The higher rates won’t hit BGE customers until their next bills. That’s in addition to all the extra energy homes are using to keep warm as temperatures outside plunge (BGE recommends setting thermostats at 68 degrees).

State fees are going up, and costs are set to increase for electricity in the months ahead. Marylanders should expect to see a combined increase for gas and electric service of about 12.4% by June — or $26 on a $210 residential bill, according to the utility company.

Maryland People’s Counsel David Lapp, who advocates for the state’s utility customers, said households with gas heat, such as Elkaim’s rowhouse, are most vulnerable.

“Winter gas bills are the ones that are going to crush people,” said Lapp, whose agency has criticized BGE’s plan to raise rates in the present for anticipated infrastructure work.

Freezing weather hit the Baltimore area Friday, with below-average temperatures forecast to continue through the month. Officials are warning that a weekend winter storm could dump as much as 12 inches of snow in Baltimore. The storm is expected to bring gusty winds and temperatures that will feel in the teens, according to the National Weather Service.

Elkaim helps her partner run El Kastillo LLC, a home remodeling business, and the two are quite handy, which has enabled them to winterize the home they share with roommates. Before the dead of winter arrives, they use “mini splits” to focus heat on certain rooms.

Their end-unit home is also more exposed to the outdoors than most rowhouses and, at 3,700 square feet, requires more heat. Elkaim knows her January bill could be even higher.

”I’m a little bit nervous,” she said.

BGE officials are bracing residents for big bills next month. The company is circulating a guide that attributes almost two-thirds of the hike to factors out of its hands.

It says the biggest portion of the increase comes from uncertainty in the electricity market because of plans to retire the region’s old coal-fired power plants, coupled with high demand for power in the state that outstrips supply.

BGE pins the other 35% of the increase to its multiyear rate plan, which incited months of debate among city leaders and consumer advocates before Maryland regulators approved it in December 2023. The Exelon-owned organization requested approval to raise rates and recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in spending as necessary to improve the reliability and safety of the region’s gas and electric distribution systems.

BGE has defended the hike by saying infrastructure improvements reduce the number of power outages, shorten the duration of the outages and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Office of People’s Counsel has argued that raising rates in the present for future infrastructure work acts to protect BGE from financial risk and incentivizes “gold-plated” infrastructure projects.

A June report from the agency found BGE rates have spiked under the multiyear plan and a similar 2013 state law known as the STRIDE program. The utility company’s rates have risen faster than inflation and faster than rates of other utilities without multiyear plans, according to the report.

State regulators with the Public Service Commission who approved the plans have also cautioned BGE to scale back the pace of the work to avoid overburdening ratepayers.

“BGE is promising its investors compound annual growth rates of about 7% that can only be maintained by continuing to invest more and more in capital infrastructure funding, resulting in continued rate increases for customers and higher bills,” Lapp said. “We have to slow down all this infrastructure spending.”

As rates rise, more households received energy assistance from the state in December 2024 than 2023, including a 50% increase in the number of households that got help paying electric bills, according to the Maryland Department of Human Services.

Thomas Maurice has lived in his century-old, 2,600-square-foot Ten Hills home for 30 years. In 2022 his December bill was $498 and last year it was $480, but this past month he owed BGE $700. He said he reached out to his neighbors and heard back from more than a dozen, each of them noting a larger-than-usual utility bill.

About 10 years ago he replaced his furnace with a more energy-efficient one, and typically he keeps the home he shares with two others at about 68 degrees. But recently he dropped that to 67. Outside of bundling up while at home, he doesn’t know what recourse he can take to lower the bill.

”It’s very frustrating,” he said. “This wasn’t incremental. This wasn’t a little jiggle up 2, 3%. This was a knock-your-socks-off.”

Jasmine Russell moved to a 300-square-foot studio near Patterson Park last year and said she was bewildered when her December BGE bill was more than $130 — significantly more than she had paid to heat larger homes in Virginia and North Carolina.

When she noticed how high her bill was, she began taking measures to cut costs, such as washing her clothes at a laundromat rather than using the energy-sucking washer and dryer in her rented apartment. The thermostat is down to 65 degrees.

”I used to set it to 72. No more,” she said with a laugh.

Russell said she scoffed after receiving a letter from BGE suggesting ways to lower her energy bill. Given that she paid significantly less in other states before she moved to Baltimore, she believes there are larger issues at play — not simply her needing to insulate her windows.

”I feel like there’s a bit of gaslighting,” she said. “No pun intended.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that the increases to BGE bills, which begin this month, will be fully phased in by June.

Banner reporters Abby Zimmardi and Lee O. Sanderlin contributed to this story.