Pennsylvania Sees First Statewide Growth in Residential Electric Shopping Since February

Driven by significant June 1 default service rate increases at several utilities, Pennsylvania has seen its first statewide growth in the number of residential electric shoppers since February of this year.

Growth was uneven throughout the state, with PPL, PECO and Duquesne Light still seeing a decline in residential shopping.

However, these declines were more than offset with residential shopping growth at the four FirstEnergy EDCs, which were the utilities which saw some of the highest June 1 default service rate increases.

Specifically, from about June 12 to June 18 (reporting date varies slightly by utility) the weekly change in the number of residential customers on competitive supply was:

Duquesne Light         (405)
Met-Ed                  862
PECO                   (225)
Penelec                 323
Penn Power              139
PPL                    (878)
West Penn Power         499

On an aggregate basis, residential shopping across Pennsylvania increased by 315 accounts in the most recent week, versus a net loss of 3,200 residential shoppers in the immediately prior week.

For comparison, from about June 5 to June 11 (reporting date varies slightly by utility) the weekly change in the number of residential customers on competitive supply was:

Duquesne Light         (566)
Met-Ed                  194
PECO                   (860)
Penelec                (212)
Penn Power               85
PPL                  (1,586)
West Penn Power        (225)