PPL Rate Increase for Summer 2013 Goes Into Effect
On June 1, 2013 Pennsylvania Power & Light customers who have remained on the electric default rate got a significant rate increase that will show up when these consumers receive their electric bills in July. The PP&L price to compare rate jumped from 7.4 cents to 8.227 cents as calendar pages turned from May to June. PP&L electric rates have been very volatile since the start of Pennsylvania electricity choice. At times competitive rates have showed savings as high as 25% versus the PPL price to compare, while in recent months few competitive suppliers were able to offer savings versus the default price.
The PP&L price to compare is the default rate consumers pay for generation and transmission charges who do not shop for competitive power. The price changes every three months and is often very difficult to predict. Even when PP&L does post an estimated price to compare for the next three month period it has proved to not be an accurate forecast. The majority of PPL customers who have done an electricity switch and who are buying their power from an alternative supplier do so because of the savings they get at that specific time period. However, for more customers the benefits of electricity choice is becoming just as much about price security and certainty as the instant savings. Consumers who locked in fixed electric rates last fall to save money during that time may have been slightly disappointed when PPL announced a default rate reduction from March through May of this year. However now they are saving money once again when electric bills will be at a premium in the hot summer months. These customers do not have to be concerned with this PPL rate hike or the potential of another one in three months since they locked in a low fixed electricity rate.
As of May 29, 2013 over 527,000 residential PP&L electricity customers are purchasing their power from competitive energy companies. This number actually decreased slightly from the all time high achieved in March of 2013 due to the low PPL default rates over the last several months. With the recent rate hike in effect that number is expected to grow. With 42.8% of the residential class active in electricity shopping the idea of electric choice in Pennsylvania is no longer a foreign idea. The market has become once of the most competitive energy choice markets in the country with new suppliers entering almost every month offering low electricity prices and sometimes additional incentives.
Current competitive PP&L electricity prices can be found below.
