After June 1 Default Service Rate Hikes, Pennsylvania Electric Shopping Still Declines

June saw an acceleration in the net decline of residential electric customers on competitive supply in Pennsylvania even as default service rates increased materially in most service areas on June 1.

Customers' first bills on the higher default service rates would generally not appear until late June or early July, though the PUC had been alerting customers of the rate increases in advance.

In any case, Pennsylvania saw residential electric shopping decline by a net of nearly 15,000 accounts from late May to late June, versus the decline of 10,000 accounts from late April to late May.

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

Duquesne Light       (4,555)
Met-Ed                 (100)
PECO                  1,110
Penelec              (1,728)
Penn Power           (3,977)
PPL                     101
West Penn Power      (5,533)