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Penelec announces 9.3% rate increase

Customers who use Penelec as their power generation supplier will see their electricity bill rise as the company announced a rate increase.

Effective Friday, the residential rate for electricity will rise 9.3% from 9.7 cents per kilowatt hour to 10.6 cents per kWh.

For the typical residential customer using 750 kWh per month, that means bills will increase about 4.7% from $142.99 to $149.67. That’s because the generation (actual electricity itself) portion of the bill accounts for about 50% to 60% of the total bill. The remainder of the bill, distribution charges for the utility to deliver electricity to homes and businesses, does not change, said Todd Meyers, spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., Penelec’s parent company.

The price to compare for FirstEnergy’s Pennsylvania utilities, including Penelec, changes twice each year. The last change in the price to compare for non-shopping Penelec customers was June 1, Meyers said.

“Our Penelec customers are not captive to the price to compare, and we encourage our customers to shop for generation. They may be able to find an offer that can save them money. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s papowerswitch.com website is a great tool to learn more about shopping and to see the offers suppliers have in each community,” Meyers said.

Penelec generates no electricity, but it delivers electricity to customers through its transmission and distribution wires.

For customers who choose not to shop, Penelec purchases the electricity on their behalf through an auction process regulated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

“We issue one bill to customers for their convenience, keep our delivery charges and send the portion of the payment for the actual electricity to the company that provides the generation.” Meyers said

The main reason behind the Dec. 1 price-to-compare increase was to true-up for under collection from non-shopping customers over the previous time period, he said.

Penelec buys electricity at auctions based on forecasts. “In this instance, we had to procure additional power. … While I don’t know the precise reason we needed to procure additional power, it happens for a variety of reasons. For instance, more shopping customers who had an alternate supplier may have returned to Penelec for default service, or perhaps warm weather caused customers to use more electricity than initially forecasted,” Meyers said.

For the Altoona area, there are 45 providers in addition to Penelec.

PAPowerSwitch.com shows those range from New Wave Energy at 6.90 cents per kwh (fixed rate for three months) to Green Choice Energy at 19.95 cents per kwh (variable rate with no term length).

Kinect Energy is partnering with WGL Energy Services to provide electricity and natural gas to small business customers as part of its Chamber Choice program.

WGL Energy serves business and residential customers. The current rate being offered to residential customers is a two-year fixed rate of 9.69 cents per kwh or a one-year fixed rate of 9.29 per kwh.

Customers can secure the rate by going to the Blair chamber website and clicking on the icon for the Chamber Choice energy program or by visiting www.wglenergy.com/kinect.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.

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