Options for Customers to Manage Electricity Bills
PPL Electric Utilities shares the concerns of its customers with the rising price of electric generation supply, and is giving customers tools and options to reduce electricity use and limit the effect on their pocketbooks.
E-power: Helping Customers Use Less Electricity
Through the e-power campaign, PPL Electric Utilities is giving customers information they can use to save electricity and manage their bills.
Energy Analyzer
Customers can get more information than ever about how, when and where they use electricity by using the Energy Analyzer. Answer a few questions about your home and get personalized tips for reducing energy use and an estimate of potential savings.
Daily Electricity Use
With the power of its advanced electric meters, PPL Electric Utilities can show customers how much electricity they use on a daily basis. By 2010, customers will be able to see their electricity use hour by hour. This detailed information enables customers to make informed decisions about their electricity use.
Energy Learning Center
The PPL Electric Utilities Web site includes an Energy Learning Center. You can calculate the energy use of various appliances. Learn about potential savings by switching to more energy-efficient appliances. Search through an extensive library of energy information.
ENERGY STAR® Partnership
PPL Electric Utilities is a partner in the federal government’s ENERGY STAR® program to promote energy efficiency and the wise use of electricity. With the help of ENERGY STAR, Americans saved an estimated $14 billion on their utility bills in 2006.
Helping Customers Cope with Higher Prices
Ease-In Option: Gradually Adjust to 2010 Price Increase
PPL Electric Utilities has asked the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to approve a plan that would give customers the option of gradually adjusting to higher prices for electric generation supply. Read about the announcement | Read the application (.pdf)
Customers who choose this option would have single-digit increases spread over several years as opposed to a larger one-time increase in 2010.
Buying in Advance
To reduce the price risk of buying all the electricity it needs at one time, PPL Electric Utilities developed, and is pursuing, a plan to buy electricity for 2010 in six stages. Two of those stages are complete. Read more about buying in advance >
Demand Management
PPL Electric Utilities will offer a time-of-use rate option to all customers in 2010.
An existing pilot program will be expanded in 2008, and new pilot programs will be developed to test this rate option in which customers pay different prices depending on when they use electricity.
Customer Assistance Programs
PPL Electric Utilities offers programs and services to help customers with financial hardships and special needs pay their bills and reduce their electricity use. Read more >
Why Are Electricity Prices Going Up?
The price of electric generation supply is linked closely to other forms of energy, because electricity begins with fuels such as coal, natural gas, oil and uranium. The cost of these fuels has risen substantially in this decade. Customers of PPL Electric Utilities have been insulated from those increases by a rate cap on electric generation supply.
The rate cap expires at the end of 2009. Because it does not own generation, PPL Electric Utilities must obtain electricity for customers from suppliers (power plant owners) in the competitive market. It already has purchased some of the electricity it needs for 2010 at prices well above the capped level.
Doesn’t PPL Own Power Plants?
When Pennsylvania deregulated the electric generation business in the 1990s, the old Pennsylvania Power & Light Company was split. The electric utility that delivers power was split legally and financially from the generation company that produces power (link). PPL Electric Utilities has one function — to deliver power through its wires — and does not own or control any generation.