Small businesses in central Pennsylvania serviced by PP&L who are still on the utility default “price to compare” rate have an opportunity to reduce their electric bill through the Pennsylvania electricity choice program. Electricity choice allows consumers to shop the market and purchase their power supply from an alternative supplier who may be able to offer a price lower than the utility supply rate. As a result of a recent utility default rate increase combined with a steady low wholesale energy market, savings are available for PPL small businesses.

PPL customers have experienced a true competitive market since the beginning of 2010 when decade long low capped rates with the utilities expired. The rate expirations caused alternative suppliers to flood the market as they were able to offer competitive prices that yielded quick savings for customers on their PPL electric bills. As is the case with most new electricity markets, commercial and industrial clients were quicker to act on the benefits of the new Pennsylvania electricity market structures as opposed to the residential customer pool, who were less familiar with the new laws. However, after seven years of electricity choice in Pennsylvania, both customer and energy supplier participation has grown.

Among the seven largest electricity utilities in Pennsylvania, PPL leads in customer participation rate for both residential and business customers. As of December 2016 the utility has 56.6% of their commercial customers purchasing power from a competitive electricity supplier. The commercial customers who have shopped and entered into a contract with a supplier account for 89.3% of the commercial usage amount. The largest users have been the quickest to adopt and learn about the benefits of electricity choice. However, small businesses can experience the same savings percentage if they take advantage and shop for a lower commercial electricity price to replace the PPL price to compare rate for the commercial customer class.

Competitive suppliers are able to offer lower prices to PPL businesses when the wholesale electricity market yields prices that are lower than the default rate. While the default rate is determined through an auction process months before the time they actually go into effect, competitive suppliers can offer customers fixed rate contracts based on wholesale prices at the current level. Over the last seven years there have been times when suppliers could not offer rates lower than the utility default rate, however for the majority of the time savings have been available. When savings are available it presents an easy and stress free way for business owners to lower one of their largest operating costs.

Competitive suppliers offer different fixed electric prices to customers based on their power consumption. Below customers can choose the amount of their monthly electric bill to see different fixed electric prices available.