Even as consumers pay ever higher rates for BGE to improve its infrastructure, the number of pipes leaking hazardous gas has risen to levels nearly four times that of similarly sized utility companies, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of data BGE reports to a federal agency.

From 2020 to 2023, BGE’s average number of total leaks reported to the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, was 7,746 a year, of which 3,978 were considered hazardous, meaning they require immediate repair. For 20 utility companies similar to BGE, the average number of total leaks over that four-year period was 2,280, of which 1,020 were considered hazardous. (The Sun chose the 20 similar companies based on their also operating within one state, and their annual averages of pipeline mileage and service lines being close to BGE’s approximately 7,600 miles and 550,800 service lines.)

The number of leaks in BGE’s gas system puts it in is among the highest in the nation, said a nonprofit that advocates for pipeline safety, posing a risk to its central Maryland service territory.

Conducting its own analysis after contacted by The Sun, the Pipeline Safety Trust said BGE also has a higher rate of gas leaks that lead to significant incidents — defined as particularly large leaks or ones that cause fatalities, serious injury or extensive property damage — than other companies, though such events are still very rare.

“The data shows that BGE pipelines pose more risk to the communities it serves than most other operators with alarmingly high fatality rates, among other safety metrics,” said Kenneth Clarkson, communication director for the Washington state-based trust.

The trust said BGE’s significant incident rate averaged 0.0878 per 1,000 miles, and put it in the 86th percentile of operators reporting to PHMSA.

Those rates reflect the relative rarity of incidents — BGE had 19 total incidents from 2011 to 2023, with 2 fatalities and 9 injuries.

BGE officials attributed its higher average number of leaks to improvements in capturing and reporting leaks that may not have previously been detected and reported, as well as the age of its infrastructure. As the nation’s oldest gas utility, the 208-year-old BGE has been working to replace the remaining, and more leak-prone, cast iron pipes from its earliest days with pipes made of plastic.

Of BGE’s 7,600 miles of pipeline, said Dawn White, BGE’s vice president for gas distribution, about 900 miles, or 12%, are cast iron.

“But two-thirds of our leaks across the entire system is off of that 900 miles,” she said.

White said it is difficult to compare utility companies to one another given that even those with similar pipeline mileage can vary in age of infrastructure and density of the service areas.

“What are those miles made of?” she said, noting BGE has one of the highest inventories of cast iron pipes in the country. “Sometimes it’s not always comparing apples to apples.”

White said she was not familiar with how the trust calculated its significant incident rate, but that BGE focuses intently on safety, surveying for leaks more frequently than required, strengthening its internal processes of responding to calls about gas odors, getting on site quickly — the average response time is about 21 1/2 minutes — and investigating any incidents fully.

The utility’s total number of leaks reported last year was down to 7,685 from 7,761 in 2020, though the number of hazardous gas leaks rose 12.7% to 4,173 in 2023, compared to 3,704 in 2022.

The dangers of hazardous gas leaks were made tragically clear in Bel Air in August, when a home exploded and killed its owner, Raymond C. Corkran Jr., and a BGE contractor, Jose Rodriguez-Alvarado. The house next door had to be demolished as well, while others were damaged severely enough that they were rendered uninhabitable.

“People are so shaken,” said Donald Rencher, whose home is down the block from Corkran’s.

Rencher, who had to move into a hotel because of his home’s damage, said there had been gas leaks in the neighborhood even before the explosion. It was surprising, he said, given how the development is less than 20 years old. According to a preliminary investigation report by the National Transportation Safety Board, Corkran’s home received gas from a main that was installed in 2006 and a service line installed the next year.

Rencher said his property had a gas leak more than 10 years ago. He and his family smelled gas, called authorities and, after digging up his yard and sidewalk, the source of the leak — a broken gas cap — was replaced, he said.

“I’ve been paranoid ever since,” Rencher said.

BGE officials said they cannot comment on the Bel Air explosion, given that it remains under investigation.

While the vast majority of leaks don’t lead to explosions, leaks pose other threats, including to the environment. Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a greenhouse gas that, when it escapes from a pipe into the atmosphere, traps heat and adds to global warming.

“Gas leaks are a concern from a safety perspective and an environmental perspective,” said Erin Murphy, senior attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund. “There’s an inherent risk here.”

BGE says replacing old pipes has helped reduce the system’s methane emissions from 250,000 metric tons in 2013 to 170,000 tons last year.

The utilityhas spent billions of dollars on its pipeline system under a 2013 state law known as STRIDE, for Strategic Infrastructure Development and Enhancement, which allows it to recover costs more quickly than normal via a surcharge on customer’s monthly bills.

It has been a slow process, dependent on costs and getting approval from the Maryland Public Service Commission. Replacing old cast iron pipes at the current rate of 40 or 50 miles a year, for example, means the project won’t be completed until the mid-2040s.

Ten years into massive STRIDE spending, critics say customers’ BGE bills are soaring yet its gas system is not measurably safer.

“People don’t understand when BGE is spending money, they’re spending your money,” said Emily Scarr, senior adviser for the advocacy group, Maryland Public Interest Research Group or PIRG.

Maryland PIRG, along with the Abell Foundation and the Office of the People’s Counsel, which serves as an advocate for utility customers, have argued against spending so much on a gas infrastructure at a time when Maryland is trying to wean itself off fossil fuels like natural gas to meet ambitious climate goals mandated by a 2022 law.

She said some pipes could be repaired rather than replaced, but it’s more profitable to do the latter because that is a capital expense that is recoverable.

“BGE has every incentive to spend as much money on capital improvement because it’s more profitable,” she said.

“Does it make sense to put a whole new gas system in when we’re getting away from gas?” Scarr said. “They’re digging us all into a hole, and we’re saying put the shovel down.”

Murphy of the Environmental Defense Fund said the issue of whether utilities should be undertaking an expansion of the gas system “needs to be brought into the conversation.” The group also supports updated pipeline safety standards currently under review by the PHMSA. While not yet finalized, among the measures in the proposal are requirements for more frequent surveys for leaks and timelier repairs of a broader range of leaks.

“This would move the ball forward,” Murphy said.

White said that even if gas use is lower in the future, BGE still has to replace aging pipes for current customers. Particularly when it comes to a cast iron pipe that has a leak, she said, it’s more cost effective and less disruptive to a neighborhood to replace the whole pipe rather than repair the leak and risk having it leak in another section necessitating another repair.

While the company supports Maryland’s climate goals, White said, many customers have been reluctant to switch to electricity.

“The one thing we hear from customers is they love natural gas,” she said. “It’s just one of those things where there is a balance, and there is a paradigm shift that’s happening. … How do you transition through that paradigm shift?”

Data note: Considering only utilities that, like BGE, serve a single state and that reported data for all four years, The Baltimore Sun used the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s Gas Distribution Annual Data from 2020 through 2023 to identify natural gas networks similar in size to BGE’s. BGE’s peer group comprises the 20 operators whose annual averages for pipeline mileage and number of service lines were closest to BGE’s.