Happy New Year and Welcome to the era of 
deregulated Energy costs.
For decades the cost of Electricity has been regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Unity Commission. Before the Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act became a reality, all of the electricity purchased or transmitted in a specific region was sold by one company. In the Philadelphia region the company that supplied electricity locally was PECO Energy. PECO had the exclusive rights to operate a monopoly in this region and consumers did not have the option to buy from any other electric supplier.
Now, every resident has the option to choose the company that generates their electricity. Your local electricity company – PECO, will still deliver and bill electricity to you, however this electricity can be generated by other companies. Also some companies are just resellers of electricity that they buy from electricity generating companies. The local utility is still 
responsible for delivering that electricity through the transmission and distribution lines.
We now have an embarrassment of choices as to which company to buy electricity from. Now, consumers can shop for a new electricity generation supplier.
The Pennsylvania Utility Commission has setup a very useful web based comparison tool to help consumer make an informed decision.
Here are the steps to use the PAPower Switch website:
- Either enter your zip code to find out which suppliers can service your home or select your present energy supplier from a list of the former regional electricity monopolies. PECO Energy was the electricity utility for the Philadelphia region.
- Your next step is to select your rate schedule: Regular Residential Service vs. Residential Heating Service.
- Decide whether you want to compare the rate structure of 17 electric suppliers for the 2010 with the $o.o994 per kWh rate that PECO charged in 2010 or the $0.0992 per kWh rate electricity generation charge that PECO started charging today.
- Finally to make your comparison more realistic, you can plug in your monthly estimated electricity usage. I suggest you use your average kWh usage that you will find in your usage profile on the second page of your PECO monthly bill.
Of course, you may want to consider additional decision criteria beside the straight electricity kWh charge. For instance:
- Some companies charge a $10 cancellation fee if you terminate your contract before the one year term.
- You may want to know whether the kWh rate that is charged to you is fixed for the duration of the contract or whether it may fluctuate.
- More important, you may want to decrease your carbon footprint by buying 100% of your electricity from renewable energy sources. Only 5 of the 17 electricity suppliers selling energy in the Philadelphia market offer renewable energy.
Know what you want:
I want to minimize my electricity bill AND buy 100% renewable energy. That way I continue to decrease my carbon footprint while optimizing the cost of the electricity we consume. If you have similar goals, I think you will find the analysis that Meenal Raval did very useful.
Meenal is the Co-Founder of PHEW! – Philly Electric Wheels, a regional distributor of electric bicycles and of Philly Compost. Here is Meenal’s analysis:
“It’s Jan 1 and I finally decided to study electricity rates.
We’ve purchased PECOWind for years, choosing to pay an add’l 2.54c per kWh for 100% wind, which ended up costing us about $86 per year. The plus to paying this much more is that we got to take 5086 lbs (or 2.3 tonnes) off our household’s carbon footprint, which we’d still like to do in 2011.
With the rate caps off, we need to compare not only the much-touted Generation & Transmission Charges
PECO 9.92c/kWh
Energy Co-op 9.78c/kWh
Viridian 10.79c/kWh
but also the charges for Renewable Energy options
PECO’s PECOWind from 100% wind for 2.54c/kWh
Energy Co-op’s EcoChoice100 from 87% hydro, 10% wind, 3% solar for 0.00c/kWh
Viridian’s PureGreen from 100% wind for 0.00c/kWh
I’ll be switching to the Energy Co-op’s EcoChoice100, lowering my bill by about 20%, still supporting 100% renewables and taking 5000 lbs off our footprint”
In your decision, also consider BlueStar Energy which offers 100% Renewable Wind Energy at 9.348c/kWh which is a cheaper price point than the Philadelphia Energy Coop. Another difference between the Energy Coop and BlueStar Energy is that the Energy Coop sources its energy from Pennsylvania based wind farms whereas BlueStar Energy sells energy generated by wind farms all around the country.
Finally another possibility is to use one of the renewable Energy Add-On suppliers. Basically, you keep your current energy supplier and buy additional blocks of renewable energy for an additional charge. See the two suppliers: Community Energy and PPL Energy Plus at the bottom of the PA Power Switch comparison chart.
Also check out the great article in Philadelphia Inquirer by Andrew Maykuth on 12/27 titled Choosing Renewable Energy can now Save Money as well as Power.
This is the first time that renewable energy is actually cheaper than dirty (Coal + Nuclear) energy.
What are we waiting for?
Electrical
January 14, 2011
It’s great you guys have this. In many places they’re still stuck under a state-wide company, aka a monopoly.
jayma19
January 15, 2011
Yes and what is interesting is the care that PA Legislators took in setting up the rules of the game so that what happened in California in 2000 and 2001 after Electricity rates were deregulated does not take place in PA.
Yes, so far so good, and let’s see what happens further down the road.