By: Anthony Salamone |
PPL Electric Utilities residential customers who purchase directly from the company will soon see a decline in their electric bills. But small business customers will pay more.
The Allentown electricity provider posted updated energy prices Friday for those consumers who do not shop for their electricity supply. Effective Dec. 1, the new price to compare for residential customers will be 7.039 cents per kilowatt-hour, down about 5½ percent from the current 7.449 cents per kwh. The price to compare for small business customers will be 7.224 cents per kilowatt-hour, up about 6½ percent from the current 6.776 cents per kwh.
The new rates translate into a savings of about $4.10 a month for a typical residential customer, to $129.20, according to PPL spokesman Joe Nixon, while the business customer will see an increase of $4.68 per month, to $117.78.
Large commercial and industrial customers shop for their own power, with the generation rate for large industrial customers based on hourly market prices, Nixon said.
The new price to compare affects only the energy portion — not a customer’s entire bill. About half of the utility’s 1.4 million customers do not shop for an energy supplier, Nixon said.
Electricity rates tend to fluctuate, partly due to seasonal demand. PPL adjusts its generation rates and price to compare every six months — June 1 and Dec. 1. Nixon said the change in rates is driven by energy prices from power suppliers, and companies like PPL pass on the costs without profit.
Customers who do shop for their energy are not affected by this change, Nixon said. Customers always have the option to shop for the best price, he said.
You can find out more information about shopping for electric supply on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s website, www.papowerswitch.com, or on PPL’s website: www.pplelectric.com/shopping.
If you are a Metropolitan Edison customer, learn more about its price to compare at firstenergycorp.com/met_edison.html. The company last changed its price to compare rates in September.
