Philadelphia commercial electricity: PECO

Philadelphia adds a city rulebook on top of PECO's tariff

PECO decides the poles, the meter and the delivery tariff, but the City of Philadelphia has layered its own requirements on large buildings, and those requirements do not move when a supplier does. The Building Energy Benchmarking Program covers nonresidential buildings of at least 50,000 square feet of indoor floor area, along with certain multifamily buildings, and requires the prior calendar year's energy and water data to be reported through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager by 30 June each year; the duty was enacted as Bill No. 120428 and sits in the Philadelphia Code. A separate Building Energy Performance Policy, enacted as Bill No. 190800, is the city's building "tune-up" rule: a covered building must have a qualified specialist assess its systems, carry out the required corrective actions and file a compliance report on a five-year cycle. The first cycle ran by size band, largest buildings first — 30 September 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in turn as the floor area fell — and every covered building then repeats the process five years after its own first deadline, which is what opens the second round at the largest band. None of this changes the supply contract, but it changes the building decisions that surround it.

• Benchmarking covers nonresidential buildings from 50,000 square feet of floor area.
• The report is filed through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager by 30 June each year.
• Enacted as Bill No. 120428; the duty sits in the Philadelphia Code.
• The Building Energy Performance Policy (Bill No. 190800) requires a periodic tune-up.
• The first tune-up deadlines ran by size band on 30 September 2021 to 2024, largest buildings first.
• Covered buildings repeat the tune-up five years after their own initial deadline.

The three PECO commercial classes: GS, PD and HT

PECO's governing document is its electric tariff, Electric Pa. P.U.C. No. 8, and the tariff is what separates a commercial account's rate family. There are three: Rate GS General Service, Rate PD Primary Distribution Power and Rate HT High-Tension Power. The tariff distinguishes them principally by the voltage at which service is delivered and by the service arrangement — who owns the transformation and the primary-side facilities, and how the account is metered — rather than by a single published kilowatt cut-off. That matters before any shopping begins, because a supplier prices from the class: the same twelve months of consumption can sit in a general-service class that is billed on measured demand or in a primary class, and the two do not compare. Where demand is measured, the bill includes billing demand in kilowatts under the applicable schedule.

• Governing document: PECO's electric tariff, Electric Pa. P.U.C. No. 8.
• Rate GS General Service — the general commercial class, generally secondary voltage.
• Rate PD Primary Distribution Power — delivery at primary-distribution voltage.
• Rate HT High-Tension Power — delivery at high-tension voltage.
• The class turns on delivery voltage, the service arrangement and metering, not one universal kW line.
• Establish the class from the bill before asking for pricing.

Default service and the Price to Compare: what resets, and when

An account that does not choose a supplier takes PECO's default service, which PECO procures under a Default Service Program the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approves. The programme in force is DSP VI, approved for a four-year term running from 1 June 2025 through 31 May 2029 under PUC docket P-2024-3046008, and it changed the reset cadence a buyer should know. Default-service rates for the Residential and Small Commercial classes now move on a semi-annual schedule — 1 June and 1 December — rather than quarterly, and the filing is made 45 days before each effective date alongside the reconciliation schedule. The benchmark a supplier's offer is read against is therefore the Price to Compare stated for the rate class in force for that six-month period, and the figure is deliberately narrow: it covers the procurement cost of supply and excludes PECO's distribution charges, the applicable surcharges and taxes. The procurement classes are drawn at 100 kW of annual peak demand. The Small Commercial class is customers up to and including 100 kW on rate schedules GS, PD and HT plus the lighting schedules; the Consolidated Large C&I class is customers above 100 kW on GS, HT, PD and EP. The Large C&I class is not a fixed-price product at all: its default energy is priced to PJM's day-ahead hourly market, so the default for a large account already floats with the spot market. A customer's class is set annually — PECO notifies the customer in November of the class that takes effect the following 1 June — based on the account's own peak measured demand in the prior June-to-May period.

• Default supply is procured under a Commission-approved Default Service Program (DSP VI).
• The docket is P-2024-3046008; DSP VI runs 1 June 2025 through 31 May 2029.
• Residential and Small Commercial rates now reset semi-annually, on 1 June and 1 December, not quarterly.
• The Price to Compare covers procurement cost only and excludes distribution, surcharges and taxes.
• It is stated by rate class, not as one number for the city.
• The small commercial class is annual peak demand up to and including 100 kW; consolidated Large C&I is above 100 kW.
• Large C&I default energy is priced to PJM's day-ahead hourly market; the class is set each November for the following 1 June.

How PECO measures demand, and the power-factor adjustment

For a demand-metered account, PECO's tariff defines measured demand as the highest demand recorded during a 30-minute interval in the billing period, and billing demand is then built from it under rules that bite hardest at a low load factor. PECO takes demand measurement where consumption exceeds 1,100 kilowatt-hours a month for three consecutive months, or where load tests show a demand of five kilowatts or more, or where the customer requests it. From there, the billing demand for an account at or below 500 kW is the measured demand, floored at 1.2 kW. Above 500 kW the billing demand is the greater of the measured demand or 40 per cent of the account's maximum contract demand — a ratchet, so a month of low use still bills against a share of the contracted peak. Where there is no demand measurement at all, the tariff computes a demand by dividing the month's kilowatt-hours by 175 hours. On top of that sits the power-factor adjustment. The tariff sets a standard power factor that sharpens with size — 80 per cent for measured demands up to 185 kW, 90 per cent from 186 to 2,500 kW, and 95 per cent above 2,500 kW — and when the account's measured power factor is below that standard, PECO increases the measured demand by the ratio of the standard to the measured figure, and the adjusted demand becomes the base for the billing demand. A poor power factor therefore raises the demand line without raising consumption, which is why correction is worth computing before a supply contract is signed.

• Measured demand is the highest demand over a 30-minute interval in the billing period.
• Measurement applies above 1,100 kWh a month for three consecutive months, or a 5 kW load test, or on request.
• At or below 500 kW, billing demand is the measured demand, floored at 1.2 kW.
• Above 500 kW, billing demand is the greater of the measured demand or 40 per cent of maximum contract demand.
• Standard power factor is 80 per cent up to 185 kW, 90 per cent from 186 to 2,500 kW, and 95 per cent above.
• Below the standard, measured demand is increased by the ratio of standard to measured power factor.

Time-of-use pricing and the advanced meter

PECO's tariff includes a time-of-use pricing option for eligible accounts with a properly configured interval meter. The tariff fixes the periods: Peak runs 2 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday excluding PJM holidays, Super Off-Peak runs midnight to 6 a.m. every day, and Off-Peak is every other hour. The option is billed on interval-metered consumption within each period, and its rates are updated semi-annually with the standard rate on 1 June and 1 December. The multipliers that move the price between the periods are set from a rolling five years of PJM day-ahead energy prices and Reliability Pricing Model capacity prices for the PECO zone, and PECO will adjust them by no more than 10 per cent in any one year. The tariff lists separate time-of-use supply entries by rate class, including GS, PD and HT, but PECO's consumer-facing enrolment describes the option more narrowly, as generation-only, so for a commercial account eligibility turns on the meter, the rate class and the procurement class rather than on the size of the business. What time-of-use changes is the supply price by hour: it does not remove demand, distribution, transmission or rider charges.

• Peak: 2 to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, excluding PJM holidays.
• Super off-peak: midnight to 6 a.m., every day.
• Off-peak: every other hour.
• The option needs an interval meter and is generation-only.
• TOU rates update semi-annually, on 1 June and 1 December.
• Multipliers come from rolling five-year PECO-zone PJM day-ahead and capacity prices, capped at a 10 per cent annual change.
• Time-of-use moves the supply price by hour, not the demand or delivery charges.

What actually sits on a Philadelphia commercial bill

A PECO commercial invoice is a stack, not a single price. The supply line is the only one a competitive supplier competes for — either PECO's default-service charge or the chosen supplier's charge. Delivery is PECO's own tariff: a customer charge plus distribution by kilowatt-hour and, where the class is demand-metered, by billing demand. On top sit the riders and adjustment clauses that the effective tariff supplement activates. The tariff names them, and they include the Distribution System Improvement Charge, the recovery of energy-efficiency and conservation program costs, a non-bypassable transmission charge and a state tax adjustment clause, alongside others the supplement switches on. These are non-bypassable delivery charges: they apply whatever supplier serves the account. One Philadelphia point of confusion is worth clearing up — the city's business taxes, principally the Business Income and Receipts Tax and the Net Profits Tax, are filed by the business with the city rather than appearing as an electricity-consumption line on the PECO bill. Read the components, not the total.

• Supply — PECO default service or the chosen supplier, the one competitive line.
• Delivery — PECO's tariff: customer charge plus distribution, and billing demand where measured.
• Riders — the adjustments the effective tariff supplement switches on, such as the DSIC and the efficiency cost recovery.
• The delivery riders are non-bypassable, so they survive a switch.
• Philadelphia's BIRT and NPT are business taxes filed with the city, not a consumption line.

How the PECO zone prices capacity and congestion

PECO Energy Company files the tariff, and the wholesale costs behind supply are priced by reference to PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organisation the utility buys and transmits inside. The specific reference in the tariff is the PECO zone — PJM's day-ahead spot energy market and its Reliability Pricing Model capacity prices for the PECO zone — and the tariff uses exactly those as the inputs when it recalculates the time-of-use multipliers, drawing on a rolling five years of data and capping any single year's change at 10 per cent. That is the mechanism behind a fact that surprises buyers. The Large Commercial and Industrial default service is not a fixed price at all; its energy is priced to PJM's day-ahead hourly market, so a large account already carries the zone's energy and capacity risk whether or not it shops. Two suppliers quoting the same term can therefore land in different places, because each is carrying its own view of where PECO-zone capacity and congestion go. An all-in comparison has to hold three separate cost questions: the commodity, the PECO-zone capacity and congestion, and the delivery riders that never move.

• Supply costs are priced by reference to PJM, through the PECO zone.
• The tariff sets the TOU multipliers from PJM day-ahead energy and RPM capacity prices for the PECO zone.
• Multiplier updates use a rolling five years and are capped at a 10 per cent change in any year.
• Large C&I default energy is priced to PJM's day-ahead hourly market, so it already floats.
• The DSIC and efficiency cost recovery are non-bypassable delivery riders.

Gas in Philadelphia is municipal, and the city finances the rest

Philadelphia's natural gas is delivered by Philadelphia Gas Works, a utility owned by the city rather than by an investor-owned company; PGW describes itself as the largest municipally owned gas utility in the United States, serving the city with roughly 500,000 customers and several thousand miles of mains. Gas is a separate programme from electricity, with its own rules and its own eligibility, so a business should treat a gas decision as its own file rather than a footnote to the electric one. Where a capital project is the reason for the review, the Philadelphia Energy Authority administers the city's Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy programme, which finances eligible energy and resiliency work at commercial, industrial and multifamily properties through a special property-tax assessment and can cover eligible hard and soft costs, with the financing secured against the property rather than the owner's balance sheet. That is a financing mechanism, not a supply rate, and it does not make a building eligible for competitive supply.

• PGW is city-owned and describes itself as the largest municipally owned gas utility in the US.
• Gas is a separate programme from electricity, with separate eligibility.
• The Philadelphia Energy Authority administers the city's C-PACE programme.
• C-PACE financing is secured as a special property-tax assessment and is non-recourse.
• It funds energy and resiliency work; it is not a commodity rate.

What to gather, and the order to do it in

A Philadelphia comparison starts with the account, not a rate sheet. Confirm from the bill or the meter that the delivery utility is PECO, note the rate class and whether the account is demand-metered, and check whether the building is master-metered or tenant-split, because that decides who controls the supply decision. Then gather twelve months of kilowatt-hours and the demand readings, the meter and account numbers, the service address, and the current contract's end date and notice period. Put any offer on the same basis as the Price to Compare for your class and period, and read what the contract excludes rather than the headline it carries. Neither the city nor the utility enrols a Philadelphia business in a supply contract: the city runs no citywide opt-out aggregation programme, and changing a generation supplier requires the customer's own consent. Competitive supply depends on the service address, the meter and the utility territory. HighGround may receive compensation from providers on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier. There is no rate table here and no savings promise, because a figure that is wrong for a specific account is worse than no figure at all.

• Delivery utility, rate class and metering arrangement.
• Whether the building is master-metered, and who holds the supply decision.
• Twelve months of kWh and the demand readings.
• Meter and account numbers, service address, contract end date and notice period.
• The city runs no citywide opt-out aggregation; consent is required to switch.
• An inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

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