Customers who continue to rely on PPL Electric Utilities as their default energy supplier will see their bills increase Saturday.
The company announced Wednesday the default rate it will levy on customers will increase 13.9 percent, from 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour to 8.2 cents. Under the new rate, the monthly bill for a customer using 1,000 kwh of electricity will jump about $7 to $125, according to PPL, an increase of 5.9 percent.
The effect of the increase on electricity rates will be offset somewhat by decreases of about $3 per month in other levies that funded customer programs, said PPL spokesman Bryan Hay.
The default rate also provides consumers with the price-to-compare when looking for better deals from other suppliers.
Fortunately, most of the more than 40 competitive energy suppliers offer better rates than PPL's default rate. A quick survey of rates posted at www.papowerswitch.com showed 26 companies offer customers in PPL's service area lower rates. Nine suppliers offer power below 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
Bryan Lee of the Retail Energy Supply Association said Pennsylvania has one of most vigorous competitive energy markets in the nation.
About 44.1 percent of PPL customers selected an alternate energy provider as of May 29, according to a review by the state Public Utility Commission.
For small business customers, the new price to compare will decrease to 7.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from the current 10.8 cents, resulting in an average savings of $34.
Like other electric utilities in the state, PPL Electric Utilities adjusts its price-to-compare, which includes generation rates and some transmission charges, for residential and small business customers every three months to reflect the cost of power.
The upcoming increase in the electricity bill comes on top of a new distribution service improvement charge, which PPL is authorized to adjust on a quarterly basis to hasten the pace of infrastructure improvements. While initially minimal, PPL will have the ability to increase it by 5 percent of the total bill.
Contact the writer: dfalchek@timessshamrock.com