Customers who use Penelec as their power generation supplier will be paying more for their electricity.

Penelec’s residential price to compare effective Sunday will increase 5.05% from 10.47 cents per kilowatt-hour to 11 cents per kWh. For the typical residential customer using 750 kWh of electricity per month, the monthly bill would rise from $156.94 to $160.90 for an overall bill increase of 2.53%, said Todd Meyers, spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., Penelec’s parent company.

“Roughly 50 percent of the Penelec electric bill is for the electricity itself (the price to compare that changes) and the rest is for us to deliver power to homes and businesses through our wires (distribution rates that do not change),” Meyers said.

The price to compare increase comes as a result of the PJM capacity auction earlier this year, Meyers said.

PJM is a regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia.

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 Dec. 1, Meyers said.

“Penelec generates no electricity; we deliver electricity to customers through our transmission and distribution wires. Our customers are not captive to the price to compare; Pennsylvania is a choice state where customers can choose their electric supplier at any time. We encourage our customers to research the offers from retail suppliers in their area,” Meyers said. “For customers who choose not to shop, Penelec purchases the electricity on their behalf through a regulated auction process, issues one bill to customers for their convenience and sends the portion of the payment for the actual electricity to the company that provides the generation. For us it is just a pass through. We sell electric generation to our customers for the same price we bought it for through the competitive auction process.”

Choices abound

For the Altoona area, there are 41 providers in addition to Penelec.

PAPowerSwitch.com shows those range from SFE Energy Pennsylvania Inc. at 7.59 cents per kwh (fixed rate for six months) to Green Mountain Energy at 18.50 cents per kwh (fixed rate for 12 months).

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 12.22 cents per kwh or a one-year fixed rate of 12.06 per kwh.

Customers can secure the Blair County Chamber Choice program rate by visiting www.wglenergy.com, click Let’s Get Started, enter your zip code and the promo code ECOD0005.

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