Pennsylvania Utility Default Service Rate Approaches 12¢

Pike County Light & Power's residential default service rate for the period starting March 1 is almost 12¢/kWh.

Specifically, the Pike County residential Price to Compare for the period March 1, 2014 to May 31, 2014 is 11.7708¢ per kWh.

The default rate includes a 2¢/kWh reconciliation factor due to prior undercollections. Although Pike County default service is 100% spot-based, rates are set three months in advance based on market projections.

Currently, about 60% of residential customers at Pike County take service from a competitive supplier, but the percentage of customers taking default service has been steadily increasing, due to, among other reasons, new customers being defaulted to default service. Previously, about 70% of Pike County residential customers were on competitive supply, the result of the PUC's prior approval of an opt-out aggregation at the utility.

Currently, three retail suppliers (ConEdison Solutions, Direct Energy, and Pennsylvania Gas & Electric) have offers for residential service at Pike County on PA Power Switch. At least one additional supplier formerly offered residential service at Pike County and may still be serving existing accounts (though not advertising new service).

Pike County tariffed default service rates (not official prices to compare) for other customer classes are (¢/kWh):

General Service Secondary         11.7090
General Service Primary           11.5200
Municipal Street Lighting         10.7980
Private Outdoor Lighting          10.7700