By Jeff Geoghan

After a month since the much-reported electric rate caps came off of Pennsylvania Power & Light (PPL), surveys reported that only 13% of PPL’s customers had switched to one of the new competitors in the market.  So where are we?

As you probably know, the only change taking place is with the power generation portion of the electric market.  In other words, the transmission of the power to your home/business is still under PPL’s authority and equipment, so you’ll continue to get billed by them for that portion of your monthly bill.  The generation side was under the state-mandated rate caps for the last decade, so the impact of rising costs at the power plant level have been hidden the end user (you).  With the end of the caps you are now at the mercy of changing rates, which in PPL’s case have meant a 30% increase for January.

To ameliorate the issue, PPL offered pay-in plans over the last 2 years which allowed ratepayers to build up a bit of a war chest that would be applied to the overages coming this year.  Nobody I know took that option (for whatever that’s worth).

Now, “Electric Choice” is the buzzword as competitors announce their entry into the market to provide power generation.  The PA Office of Consumer Advocacy is maintaining the official PA list of electric providers and rate plans.  In reviewing the plans, we found that the real savings did not seem to be too compelling over PPL.  where PPL rates may have gone up 30%, even the best of these competing programs offered 10% off, so the net increase would be 20% over your 2009 and earlier bills.  Of the programs currently offered, Dominion Energy appeared to have the best safety (minimal fees) and price combination.  Dominion was also the first to get in the market and mailed a piece to all PPL customers in the fall.  One the major pitfalls of the competitive field is the presence of large early-termination fees (which we all know & love from cell phones, etc) which curb our ability as consumers to change our providers as new and better programs come online.

Either way, if you have electric heat or otherwise depend on PPL for a chunk of your utility usage, you’d better get on with making a decision.  One event coming up this week promises to help answer questions about Lancaster County electric choice – State Representative John Bear put together an open house on the subject:

Rep. John C. Bear (R-Lancaster) will be holding an Electric Choice One-Stop Shop Event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Jewish Community Center at 2120 Oregon Pike, Lancaster to help constituents learn more about the whole new world of electric choice and deregulation, speak directly to the new suppliers of electricity in our area about program offerings, and exercise their option to sign up for the supplier of their choice

You can read the full announcement at Representative Bear’s website.  If you like talking to people rather than studying paperwork then I would highly recommend this event.

If any readers have helpful comments or advice on coping with electric choice please feel free to post here or contact us.  We’ll stay with this story as the spring season approaches…