Philadelphia Business Electricity Savings
Energy competition and choice has created low prices options for businesses in Philadelphia. The local utility in Philadelphia, PECO, recently raised their supply default electric rates by 10% on average. The default rates are the PECO price to compare prices businesses pay who have not shopped for low electric rates.
Despite the energy price increases for price to compare customers, competitive electric rates have stayed low despite increased volatility in the natural gas market. Businesses in Philadelphia can lower their electric bill by as much as 25% if they take the time to find low electric rates in PECO.
Electricity shopping is going on in the PECO electric utility region which includes the city of Philadelphia. According to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission 40% of PECO commercial customers are receiving their electric supply from an alternative supplier, with 56% of the total electricity consumption going to alternative suppliers. This shows that the highest power consumption customers are the ones doing the electric shopping. Many small businesses are still unaware of electric choice in Pennsylvania. It is these small mom and pop shops that can sometimes use the savings the most, and low competitive electric rates can provide those electric bill savings.
Many people have compared the success of the Pennsylvania electric choice market to that of Texas which is widely considered the most successful energy choice state. Texas, which deregulated their electricity market in 2002, had a 58% switch rate five years after competition began. Today Dallas energy customers have dozens of electricity companies to choose from, including a variety of green power options. After only 7 months of true electric choice, PECO has reached a 20% residential customer switch rate.
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