Happy New Year: Pennsylvania Residential Shopping Craters in December; Loss of 44,000 Accounts

Pennsylvania saw the number of residential electric shoppers plummet during December 2014 according to stats recently posted on PA Power Switch.

Specifically, according to the statistics, residential electric shopping on a statewide basis declined by nearly 44,000 accounts from late November 2014 to December 2014. This statistic is based on the residential migration change at PECO, PPL, Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power, and West Penn Power, as updated stats from Duquesne Light were not available in the December 31, 2014 updated statistics.

A monthly decline of 44,000 residential shoppers exceeds the monthly bleeding from even the height of the post-polar vortex return of customers to default service, and presumably reflects the continuing impact from the decision of FirstEnergy Solutions to cease serving residential customers outside of municipal aggregations, particularly as the vast majority of the lost shoppers occurred at the FirstEnergy EDCs.

The change in the number of residential customers on competitive supply at each utility from late November to late December was:

Duquesne Light         N/A
Met-Ed              (13,982)
PECO                  1,561
Penelec              (5,810)
Penn Power           (7,846)
PPL                  (1,550)
West Penn Power     (16,057)