Pittsburgh business energy: two suppliers

Two fuels, two delivery utilities, and a choice in both

Pittsburgh splits the energy question down the middle. Duquesne Light Company owns the electric wires, and Peoples Natural Gas, a division of Essential Utilities, owns the gas mains, so the two halves of a commercial energy bill arrive from different companies under different tariffs. Both tariffs are filed with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, and both separate the commodity from the delivery service, which is what makes a supplier choice possible on each side. That combination is unusual in the markets covered on this site. The Texas metros offer electric choice but leave commercial gas to a tariffed distributor with no competing offer; Austin and San Antonio offer neither, because a municipal utility supplies the fuel. Pittsburgh offers both, and the Pennsylvania commission licenses the suppliers that compete for the commodity. The practical consequence for an operator is that the annual review has two halves to it, and each half is benchmarked against a different published number.

• Duquesne Light Company is the electric distribution utility for Pittsburgh.
• Peoples Natural Gas, a division of Essential Utilities, is the gas distribution utility.
• Both tariffs are approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
• Electric Generation Supplier choice and gas supplier choice both exist, so the commodity can be shopped on each side.
• The commission licenses the suppliers that compete for either commodity.

The electric bill is three services, not one

Duquesne Light's own explanation of a commercial bill splits the charges into two blocks, and each block separates the wires from the commodity. The distribution block carries a customer charge, an energy distribution charge per kWh, a demand distribution charge per kW, the Pennsylvania energy efficiency surcharge and a state tax adjustment. The supply block repeats that shape on the commodity side: energy supply per kWh, energy transmission per kWh, and demand transmission per kW. Reading the bill this way answers the question most operators ask first, which is what a supplier is actually competing on. A competing electric generation supplier prices the supply block; it does not touch the distribution block, the transmission components or the state surcharge. A customer who never shops keeps buying supply from Duquesne Light at the default service rate, which is where the Price to Compare comes from. The bill guide also names the utility's own charges as DLC charges, which it defines as the services necessary for delivering electricity, including default service supply, transmission and distribution. That definition is the quickest way to see what a supplier can replace, because default service supply is the only piece of the delivery service that changes hands.

• The distribution block prices the wires: customer charge, energy distribution per kWh, demand distribution per kW.
• The supply block prices the commodity the same way: energy supply per kWh, energy transmission per kWh, demand transmission per kW.
• A competing supplier prices the supply block only.
• The state energy efficiency surcharge and tax adjustment sit on the distribution side.
• Customers who do not shop are served at the utility's default service rate.

Demand on a quarter-hour average, and a minimum charge that reaches back eleven months

The demand line is the part of a Pittsburgh commercial bill that rewards attention, and Duquesne Light's bill guide defines it precisely. Actual demand is the highest average kilowatt usage measured across all fifteen-minute intervals in a billing period, so it is a sustained quarter-hour rather than an instantaneous spike. Billing demand is that actual demand multiplied by the power factor, which means a site with a poor power factor is billed for more kilowatts than it actually drew. On top of that sits a minimum charge calculated as 30% of the highest demand recorded in the last eleven months, which is a ratchet in the form of a floor rather than a summer season surcharge. The arithmetic is the reader's: take the highest billed demand from the past eleven months, calculate 30% of it, and compare that figure with the demand line on each bill. In any month where the floor is higher, the meter reading is not what is being billed, and the eleven-month window means one heavy month can hold the floor up for most of a year.

• Actual demand is the highest average kW over all fifteen-minute intervals in the billing period.
• Billing demand is actual demand multiplied by the power factor.
• A minimum charge applies, calculated as 30% of the highest demand in the last eleven months.
• The floor is a rolling eleven-month window, not a seasonal ratchet, so one heavy month persists.
• Comparing the 30% floor against each month's demand line shows how many months the floor is setting the charge.

The Price to Compare is the number an offer has to beat

Pennsylvania's choice framework runs on a single published benchmark. Each electric distribution company publishes a Price to Compare, the price a customer pays for supply under default service, and it appears on the business's own bill as well as on the commission's consumer site. An Electric Generation Supplier offer is only interesting to the extent it beats that number on the same usage and over a comparable term, which is why the comparison has to hold the usage level constant: a supplier price quoted at one consumption level does not transfer to another. The other half of the discipline is term. Default service is not a contract the customer signs, so a fixed-term supplier offer buys certainty that default service does not provide, and pays for it. A business that switches and later wants to return is returning to default service rather than to a negotiated rate, which is a useful thing to know before the term expires rather than after. The commission's consumer site lists the licensed suppliers, and a supplier's terms matter as much as its price, because the supply block a supplier prices contains energy supply, energy transmission and demand transmission alike, and an offer has to be read against the same components the bill shows.

• The Price to Compare is the utility's default service supply price and is the benchmark for any offer.
• It appears on the customer's bill and on the commission's consumer comparison site.
• Hold the usage level constant when comparing, because a price quoted at one consumption level does not transfer.
• Default service is not a signed contract, so a fixed-term offer trades flexibility for certainty.
• Returning from a supplier means returning to default service, not to a negotiated rate.

Gas is the same shape, with bands set by annual volume

Peoples Natural Gas runs a choice programme of its own, and its tariff is organised by annual volume. Commercial sales customers are banded as Small General Service, Medium General Service or Large General Service, and the tariff's transportation rate draws its own lines at different numbers: commercial, industrial and NGDC customers consuming less than 1,000 Mcf a year are classified as Small General Service under the transportation tariff, those between 1,000 and 25,000 Mcf a year are Medium General Service, and those above 25,000 Mcf a year are Large General Service. A standby rate serves transportation customers who need it. The bill keeps the same two-part logic as the electric side: a purchased gas cost rider passes the commodity through in its components of capacity, gas cost adjustment and commodity, while the distribution charge is the delivery service. That split is the whole answer to what a gas supplier can change, because a competitive supplier prices the commodity and the capacity behind it, not the mains.

• Peoples bands commercial sales customers as Small, Medium or Large General Service.
• Under the transportation tariff, commercial customers below 1,000 Mcf a year are Small General Service.
• From 1,000 to 25,000 Mcf a year the transportation class is Medium General Service; above 25,000 Mcf it is Large General Service.
• A standby rate is available to transportation customers.
• The purchased gas cost rider passes through capacity, gas cost adjustment and commodity; the distribution charge is delivery.

The Weather Normalization Adjustment applies to delivery, and to some classes only

Peoples Natural Gas operates a Weather Normalization Adjustment, and it is worth understanding precisely because it changes what a winter bill means. The company states that the adjustment applies only to the distribution, or delivery, charge; that it applies to billing cycles rendered between 1 October and 31 May; and that it takes effect only when actual temperatures differ from normal by more than three percent. When the season runs colder than normal the adjustment appears as a credit against the delivery charge, and when it runs warmer than normal it increases it. The mechanism began with bills rendered from 1 October 2024, and the company lists the customers it covers: residential, CAP, and commercial Small General Service and Medium General Service accounts, whether they take retail or transportation service. Large General Service customers are not in that list. For a commercial account this is the reason a comparative winter cannot be read off two delivery charges directly, and the reason a budget built on last winter's delivery dollars needs a second thought.

• The adjustment applies to the distribution, or delivery, charge rather than the whole bill.
• It applies to billing cycles rendered from 1 October through 31 May.
• It operates only when actual temperatures differ from normal by more than three percent.
• Colder than normal produces a credit against the delivery charge; warmer than normal increases it.
• It covers residential, CAP, Commercial Small General Service and Commercial Medium General Service accounts, not Large General Service.

The city puts larger buildings on an annual reporting cycle

Pittsburgh adds a requirement that no other covered market imposes, and it attaches to the building rather than to the energy contract. The city's building benchmarking ordinance, added to the Pittsburgh Code as Chapter 629 and enacted on 18 October 2016, defines a covered building as any non-residential building with indoor floor space of 50,000 square feet or more, or the non-residential portions of a mixed-use building where at least that much space is devoted to non-residential use. The owner must submit, no later than 1 June each year, the previous calendar year's complete building energy usage, complete water usage and building characteristics through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager, and share them with the city. Exemptions are available on application, but the request and its documentation must be submitted at least 60 days before the deadline. For an operator the practical effect is that the energy baseline already has to exist, in a standard format, once a year. The ordinance also states its intent that the information be open by default and published consistent with Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know and Open Meetings laws, which is worth knowing before a lease or a financing application arrives.

• Pittsburgh Code Chapter 629 covers non-residential buildings of 50,000 square feet or more.
• It also covers the non-residential portions of mixed-use buildings at that floor-space total.
• Submission is due by 1 June each year for the previous calendar year.
• Energy usage, water usage and building characteristics go in through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager.
• Exemption requests, with documentation, are due at least 60 days before the deadline.

What to assemble before a Pittsburgh energy decision

Because both commodities can be shopped, the preparation is two files rather than one. On the electric side, take the rate schedule and the service voltage from the bill, twelve months of kWh with the demand readings, and the power factor history if motors or compressors run the load, since power factor scales the billing demand directly. Pull the Price to Compare from the bill and calculate the 30% floor against the highest demand of the last eleven months, so that the ratchet, rather than the meter, explains the demand line. On the gas side, take twelve months of usage in Mcf or therms, the schedule printed on the bill, and the volume band it implies, because the transportation thresholds are drawn at 1,000 and 25,000 Mcf a year and the class assignment changes the arithmetic. Check whether the site is a covered building under Chapter 629 before the 1 June deadline and, if it is, whether an exemption applies, since the exemption request is due 60 days earlier. HighGround works as an advisor-assisted channel rather than a rate table, sourcing electricity and gas supply through the Broker Online Exchange supplier network and the adjacent categories through the AppDirect ecosystem. HighGround may receive provider compensation on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

• The electric rate schedule, service voltage, twelve months of kWh with demand readings, and the power factor history.
• The electric Price to Compare from the bill, and the 30% eleven-month demand floor worked out against it.
• Twelve months of gas usage and the schedule on the bill, checked against the 1,000 and 25,000 Mcf transportation thresholds.
• Whether the building is covered by Chapter 629, with the exemption request due 60 days before the 1 June deadline.
• Competitive supply depends on the service address, the meter and the utility territory; municipal utilities, cooperatives and some jurisdictions have no choice at all.
• HighGround may receive provider compensation on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

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