Penelec Commercial Customers’ Default Electricity Rate Increasing 7%
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has approved new tariffed commercial PTC-Default rates filed by the FirstEnergy Pennsylvania utilities, for the three-month period between March 1, 2021, through May 31, 2021.
The new higher rates will impact commercial customers of Penn Power, West Penn Power, Penelec and Met-Ed.
For Penelec commercial customers, this means a 7% increase, from the current rate of $0.05633 per kWh to $0.06049 per kWh. For a small business with an average electric usage of 2000 kilowatt-hours, this represents an $8.30 bump on the utility bill each month.
Likely, this isn’t the last increase in electric rates born by customers. Penelec, the utility company with 585,000 customers within 17,600 square miles of northern and central Pennsylvania is set to spend approximately $200 million for targeted infrastructure upgrades within the next four years – these costs will very likely be passed down to the customers.
In most areas of Pennsylvania, consumers can choose who supplies their electricity, thanks to the deregulation of the energy industry. Pennsylvanian businesses supplied by Penelec can avoid paying the extra $8.30 dollars each month by locking in a fixed-rate contract with a competitive supplier.
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