Pennsylvania business electricity: six EDCs

Start with the delivery utility, not the supplier

The electric distribution company, not the supplier, decides the geography of a Pennsylvania account. Six investor-owned EDCs cover most of the state. PECO Energy serves Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania; PPL Electric Utilities covers the central and eastern corridor through Harrisburg, Lancaster, the Lehigh Valley and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre; Duquesne Light serves Pittsburgh and much of Allegheny County; and FirstEnergy's three Pennsylvania rate districts - Met-Ed in the east and south-central region around Reading and York, Penn Power in western Pennsylvania north and east of Pittsburgh, and West Penn Power in the southwest and west-central part of the state - split the rest. The EDC fixes the delivery tariff, the outage response, the metering framework and the default-service provider. Municipal electric systems and cooperatives sit outside this structure entirely, and a business in one of those territories may have no competitive supply at all.

• PECO Energy - Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania.
• PPL Electric Utilities - central and eastern Pennsylvania: Harrisburg, Lancaster, the Lehigh Valley.
• Duquesne Light - Pittsburgh and much of Allegheny County.
• Met-Ed (FirstEnergy) - eastern and south-central Pennsylvania, including Reading and York.
• Penn Power (FirstEnergy) - western Pennsylvania north and east of Pittsburgh.
• West Penn Power (FirstEnergy) - southwestern and west-central Pennsylvania.
• A municipal electric system or cooperative may offer no retail choice at all.

The rate class decides what a supplier can price

Commercial rate classes are not uniform statewide, and the class is set by the physical service, not by the size of the business. PECO's tariff, for example, runs a Rate GS General Service class for ordinary commercial accounts alongside Rate PD Primary-Distribution Power and Rate HT High-Tension Power for accounts taking service at higher voltage, plus dedicated lighting and net-metering rates. FirstEnergy uses overlapping classes such as RS, GS-V, GS-S and GS-M across its rate districts. What decides the class is typically maximum demand, voltage level, annual usage, service hours and power factor, and the controlling document is the EDC's tariff filed with and approved by the Commission. That matters commercially because a supplier needs the delivery class to convert a usage history into a price: the same twelve months of kilowatt-hours can sit in a general-service class or a primary class, and the two do not compare.

• PECO: Rate GS General Service, Rate PD Primary-Distribution Power, Rate HT High-Tension Power.
• FirstEnergy Pennsylvania: classes including RS, GS-V, GS-S and GS-M across its rate districts.
• Class turns on demand, voltage, usage, service hours and power factor.
• The EDC's PUC-approved tariff is the controlling document.
• A supplier needs the class, not just the consumption, to price the account.

Default service and the Price to Compare

Every Pennsylvania account that does not choose a supplier is served by its EDC's default service, which the utility must provide under 66 Pa.C.S. §2807(e). The EDC files a Default Service Program with the Commission and procures supply competitively, usually through solicitations, auctions or requests for proposals, using a mix of long-term, short-term and spot-market contracts; Pennsylvania policy describes the long-term contracts as spanning several years. The result is unbundled from distribution and shows as the generation-supply benchmark on the bill: the Price to Compare. The Price to Compare is built from the utility's approved procurement costs and related adjustments rather than being a single statewide number, so it changes by EDC, by rate class and on a schedule the approved plan sets - commonly twice a year or quarterly for residential classes, and more often for large commercial and industrial accounts. Compare a supplier offer against the Price to Compare for your class and service period, not against a headline.

• Default service is the EDC's obligation under 66 Pa.C.S. §2807(e).
• The utility files a Default Service Program and procures supply competitively.
• The Price to Compare is the generation-supply benchmark and excludes distribution.
• It is utility-, class- and period-specific, not a statewide rate.
• Update cadence runs from quarterly to monthly depending on the EDC and the class.

Who is allowed to sell you supply

Pennsylvania licenses the market rather than leaving it open. An electric generation supplier that sells or arranges supply for retail customers must hold Commission authorization, and the rules governing those suppliers appear principally in 52 Pa. Code Chapter 54, covering licensing, financial responsibility, conduct, contracts, disclosure, billing, deposits and complaints. Brokers and aggregators, which arrange or combine purchases without taking title to the electricity, sit under 52 Pa. Code Chapter 62, and the regulatory question is what the company actually does - solicit customers, negotiate supply, aggregate load, or execute transactions. Before signing, confirm the company's legal name and licence category, and read the contract for term, renewal, termination, early-cancellation and minimum-usage provisions. The disclosure a small business must receive is set at 52 Pa. Code §54.5; it is a statement of terms, not a rate table.

• Electric generation suppliers: 52 Pa. Code Chapter 54.
• Brokers and aggregators: 52 Pa. Code Chapter 62.
• The licence category depends on what the company does, not what it calls itself.
• Small-business disclosure statements sit at 52 Pa. Code §54.5.
• Read term, renewal, cancellation and minimum-usage clauses before signing.

The PJM layer: MAAC, PPL and ATSI

Pennsylvania load sits inside PJM Interconnection, and the state is split across more than one PJM transmission and pricing zone: MAAC, the PPL zone and ATSI, the American Transmission Systems zone covering the western part of the state. The zone is set by transmission-service location, not by county line, so two sites in the same metro can price differently. Two wholesale components drive the difference. Congestion arises when transmission constraints stop the cheapest generation from serving every location, and PJM prices it through locational marginal pricing, which raises the energy price where the network is constrained. Capacity is bought in PJM's capacity market to keep resources available for future reliability, and its cost varies by delivery area and auction year. A supplier can embed both in a fixed price or pass them through, so a contract advertised as fixed deserves a close read of which components it excludes.

• Pennsylvania load spans the PJM MAAC, PPL and ATSI zones.
• The zone follows transmission-service location, not county boundaries.
• Congestion is priced through PJM's locational marginal pricing.
• Capacity cost varies by delivery area and auction year.
• Check whether a 'fixed' price excludes capacity, transmission or ancillary services.

Municipal aggregation and the consent rule

A Pennsylvania municipality can aggregate customers, but it cannot enrol a business by silence. The Commission's rules distinguish opt-out aggregation, where eligible accounts are included unless they decline after the required notices, from opt-in aggregation, where participation follows affirmative consent - and opt-out programmes require explicit Commission approval. Direct consent is required to change a generation supplier, so an account is not switched merely because it sits inside a municipality that has adopted a programme. Aggregation programmes must still comply with the Commission's rules on licensing, disclosure, enrolment, switching and rescission, and an aggregator must explain the supplier, the price or pricing formula, the term and the account's rights before enrolment. The practical test for a business is simple: if nobody signed anything, the default service is still what is serving the meter.

• Opt-in aggregation requires affirmative consent; opt-out aggregation requires Commission approval.
• Direct consent is required to change a generation supplier.
• A municipal programme does not enrol an account by notice alone.
• Aggregators must disclose supplier, price basis, term and customer rights before enrolment.
• No signature means the account is still on default service.

Act 129 and the protections that travel with choice

Act 129 of 2008 reshaped Pennsylvania's restructured market and created the Energy Efficiency and Conservation programmes, administered through the EDCs and overseen by the Commission, which fund commercial lighting, HVAC, industrial-process, motor and compressed-air measures and demand-reduction work. Eligibility and programme structure vary by EDC and programme year, so they are checked utility by utility. The same statute and the retail-choice rules carry the protections a business relies on: the right to choose a licensed supplier, continued physical delivery and outage restoration from the EDC, required supplier disclosures, rules against slamming and unauthorised switching, and a bill comparison against the applicable Price to Compare. The point to hold onto is that choosing a supplier changes who sells the generation, not who owns the poles, the meter or the outage response.

• Act 129 of 2008 created the Energy Efficiency and Conservation programmes.
• Programmes run through the EDCs and are overseen by the Commission.
• The EDC keeps responsibility for poles, wires, meters and outages.
• Choice brings disclosure, anti-slamming and bill-comparison protections.
• Programme eligibility is checked utility by utility and year by year.

The default service cycle in practice

Default service is not a permanent rate but a plan with a start and an end, and the Commission publishes the current ones. Duquesne Light's Default Service Program, for example, runs from 1 June 2025 through 31 May 2029 under a specific docket, while FirstEnergy Pennsylvania's next programme was filed as a petition and sat pending before the Commission, and Pike County Light & Power filed a plan running from 1 June 2027. The practical consequence is that the Price to Compare a business compares against today has an expiry, and the procurement behind the next period may already be planned. When a supplier offer covers a term that crosses one of those boundaries, ask how the offer treats the change in the default benchmark, because the fallback the account would land on is the plan in force at that time, not the one on the bill now.

• The Commission publishes current and pending Default Service Plans.
• Duquesne Light's plan runs 1 June 2025 to 31 May 2029 under its own docket.
• FirstEnergy Pennsylvania's next programme stood as a pending petition.
• Pike County Light & Power filed a plan beginning 1 June 2027.
• Check how an offer spans a change in the default benchmark.

What to gather before asking for pricing

A Pennsylvania comparison is built from the account, not from a rate sheet. Gather the delivery utility and the rate class from the bill, twelve months of kilowatt-hours by month and the peak demand readings where the bills show them, the meter number, the service address, and the current contract's end date and notice period. Confirm whether the address sits in a municipal or cooperative territory that cannot shop. Then put any offer on the same basis as the Price to Compare for your class and service period, and read what the contract excludes rather than what the headline includes. HighGround may receive compensation from providers on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier. There is no rate table on this page and no savings promise, because a figure that is wrong for a specific account is worse than no figure at all.

• The delivery utility and rate class from the bill.
• Twelve months of kWh and the peak demand readings.
• The meter number, service address and current notice period.
• Whether the address can shop at all.
• An inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

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