Turnaround? Five Pennsylvania Utilities Now Seeing Weekly Residential Shopping Growth

Five Pennsylvania electric utilities saw an increase in the number of residential customers on competitive supply, and a sixth barely lost any residential shoppers, according to the most recent weekly stats from the PUC

However, this turnaround in the Pennsylvania retail market may be short-lived, as well-above-market default service rates at the four FirstEnergy EDCs will decrease significantly on September 1. Indeed, the growth at those utilities which saw residential shopping growth was marginally lower than the week-ago growth for most utilities.

Specifically, from about August 21 to August 27 (reporting date varies slightly by utility), PECO, Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power all saw increases in residential shopping. Furthermore, Duquesne Light saw residential shopping decline by only 16 accounts.

From about August 21 to August 27, Pennsylvania saw an aggregate increase of 1,300 residential customers on competitive supply, up from growth of 1,000 accounts in the immediately prior week.

Specifically, from about August 21 to August 27 (reporting date varies slightly by utility) the weekly change in the number of residential customers on competitive supply was:

Duquesne Light          (16)
Met-Ed                  493
PECO                    911
Penelec                 245
Penn Power               60
PPL                    (499)
West Penn Power          87

For comparison, from about August 14 to August 20 (reporting date varies slightly by utility) the weekly change in the number of residential customers on competitive supply was:

Duquesne Light         (398)
Met-Ed                  542
PECO                    970
Penelec                 304
Penn Power               44
PPL                    (224)
West Penn Power        (253)