It Begins: Four Pennsylvania Utilities See Decline in Residential Shopping (Polar Vortex Impact)

In a reversal of migration trends year-to-date, four Pennsylvania electric utilities saw the net number of residential accounts on competitive supply decrease from about February 26 to March 5, according to the latest stats on PA Power Switch.

During the most recent week (reporting date varies slightly by utility), Duquesne Light, Met-Ed, PECO, and Penelec all saw the number of residential customers on competitive supply decrease versus the week-ago total.

Specifically, the weekly change in the number of residential customers on competitive supply from about February 26 to March 5 at each utility was:

Duquesne Light         (445)
Met-Ed                 (614)
PECO                   (421)
Penelec                (165)
Penn Power              104
PPL                   1,005
West Penn Power         122

For Met-Ed, PECO, and Penelec, the decline in residential shopping is the first net decrease in residential migration since the start of 2014. For Duquesne, the weekly decline of 445 residential shoppers is 10 times higher than the decline experienced in the immediately prior week.

Even PPL, which is still seeing net growth in residential shopping, has seen the pace of migration slow; in early February, the net growth in residential shopping had been double, at 2,000 accounts per week.

The declines in residential migration had been expected given customer reaction to retail supplier pricing under the polar vortex. Due to the lag in billing and then the subsequent meter reading (when switches occur), customers electing to return to default service in late January or early February are now starting to show up in the migration reports.