Penelec Power Price To Compare Increase
Penelec customers will be among the Pennsylvania residents who will see their electric bills swell up this year. The utility company has received approval from the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Pennsylvania to raise both residential and commercial default electric rates (known as the ‘Price To Compare’) in September 2020.
The tariffed residential rate is set to increase by 2%, from the current 5.532 cents per kWh to 5.598 cents per kWh, while the tariffed commercial rate will go up from the current 5.012 cents per kWh to 5.102 cents per kWh.
Customers who would like to avoid paying the higher price have the opportunity to switch their electric supply to a retail electric provider (REP), thanks to the deregulated energy industry in Pennsylvania.
Penelec isn’t the only utility to raise the default rates this year. Other companies, belonging to the FirstEnergy Pennsylvania group, including Met-Ed, Penn Power, and West Penn Power have received approval from PPUC to proceed with the rate changes.
The increased price is the result of FirstEnergy Corp’s long-term distribution improvement projects in Pennsylvania, with an additional $572 million in capital investments needed over the next five years. These costs, now approved by the PPUC, will have to be passed down to the customers in the form of rate hikes.
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