Pennsylvania electricity rates and bills

Prices rose faster here than almost anywhere

Over the 12 months to August 2026, Pennsylvania's residential average rose 12.3% against the previous 12 months, to 20.86¢ per kWh. Businesses felt it more: over the same 12 months commercial prices rose 14.7% (5th highest among the states) and industrial prices 20.9% (4th highest¹).

The increase came on top of a sharp rise the year before. The annual residential average climbed 8.6% from 2024 to 2025, and 42.0% since 2020, the 6th highest³ five-year increase among the states. In August 2026 the residential price was 21.77¢ per kWh, +9.2%¹ against a year earlier.

PennsylvaniaUnited States

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Average revenue per kWh (all charges, nominal dollars), each month; summer and winter months differ by season. Monthly EIA data through August 2026 (released October 23, 2026); months since January 2026 are preliminary.

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Period	Pennsylvania (¢/kWh)	United States (¢/kWh)
Jan 2020	13.65¢	12.76¢
Feb 2020	13.72¢	12.82¢
Mar 2020	13.77¢	13.04¢
Apr 2020	13.78¢	13.24¢
May 2020	14.01¢	13.10¢
Jun 2020	13.63¢	13.22¢
Jul 2020	13.32¢	13.21¢
Aug 2020	13.27¢	13.26¢
Sep 2020	13.59¢	13.49¢
Oct 2020	13.92¢	13.66¢
Nov 2020	13.55¢	13.31¢
Dec 2020	13.18¢	12.78¢
Jan 2021	13.07¢	12.62¢
Feb 2021	13.06¢	13.01¢
Mar 2021	13.22¢	13.24¢
Apr 2021	13.73¢	13.73¢
May 2021	13.85¢	13.86¢
Jun 2021	13.99¢	13.83¢
Jul 2021	13.70¢	13.83¢
Aug 2021	13.86¢	13.92¢
Sep 2021	14.06¢	14.14¢
Oct 2021	14.49¢	14.06¢
Nov 2021	14.13¢	14.07¢
Dec 2021	14.37¢	13.72¢
Jan 2022	14.09¢	13.64¢
Feb 2022	14.38¢	13.76¢
Mar 2022	14.59¢	14.41¢
Apr 2022	14.83¢	14.57¢
May 2022	15.07¢	14.89¢
Jun 2022	16.36¢	15.30¢
Jul 2022	16.48¢	15.31¢
Aug 2022	16.34¢	15.82¢
Sep 2022	17.06¢	16.19¢
Oct 2022	17.51¢	15.99¢
Nov 2022	17.38¢	15.55¢
Dec 2022	17.77¢	14.94¢
Jan 2023	18.02¢	15.47¢
Feb 2023	18.33¢	15.98¢
Mar 2023	18.13¢	16.04¢
Apr 2023	18.36¢	16.10¢
May 2023	18.46¢	16.14¢
Jun 2023	18.39¢	16.09¢
Jul 2023	17.94¢	15.86¢
Aug 2023	17.89¢	15.91¢
Sep 2023	18.02¢	16.27¢
Oct 2023	18.44¢	16.48¢
Nov 2023	18.11¢	16.19¢
Dec 2023	17.52¢	15.69¢
Jan 2024	17.37¢	15.41¢
Feb 2024	17.27¢	16.10¢
Mar 2024	17.97¢	16.67¢
Apr 2024	18.31¢	16.86¢
May 2024	18.56¢	16.40¢
Jun 2024	17.67¢	16.38¢
Jul 2024	17.43¢	16.62¢
Aug 2024	17.57¢	16.60¢
Sep 2024	17.78¢	16.82¢
Oct 2024	18.43¢	17.09¢
Nov 2024	18.04¢	16.85¢
Dec 2024	17.56¢	16.27¢
Jan 2025	17.56¢	15.92¢
Feb 2025	17.99¢	16.40¢
Mar 2025	18.42¢	17.03¢
Apr 2025	18.97¢	17.20¢
May 2025	19.30¢	17.33¢
Jun 2025	19.69¢	17.44¢
Jul 2025	19.52¢	17.39¢
Aug 2025	19.93¢	17.57¢
Sep 2025	20.43¢	18.05¢
Oct 2025	20.48¢	17.95¢
Nov 2025	20.15¢	17.77¢
Dec 2025	20.07¢	17.11¢
Jan 2026	20.19¢	17.45¢
Feb 2026	20.30¢	17.65¢
Mar 2026	20.92¢	18.60¢
Apr 2026	21.47¢	18.86¢
May 2026	21.55¢	18.44¢
Jun 2026	21.73¢	18.34¢
Jul 2026	21.71¢	18.31¢
Aug 2026	21.77¢	18.16¢

Why: the PJM capacity market

Pennsylvania's utilities buy the electricity for their default service in the wholesale market run by PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for all or part of thirteen states and the District of Columbia. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's 2026 review of retail prices found that higher PJM capacity prices, the payments that guarantee enough power plants are available at peak, raised average PJM wholesale costs by 0.9¢ per kWh in 2025, with a further 0.6¢ per kWh expected in 2026; higher fuel costs added more. The laboratory reports Pennsylvania's average retail price up 1.2¢ per kWh from 2024 to 2025, alongside similar rises in New Jersey (2.0¢ per kWh) and Maryland (1.5¢ per kWh⁴).

Because default-service prices are set from power bought in advance, and most utilities reset them on June 1 and December 1 (some adjust them more often), wholesale increases reach households in steps rather than all at once. Our PJM analysis compares the PJM states with each other.

A big exporter that still pays above average

Pennsylvania's power plants generated the equivalent of 171% of the state's retail electricity sales in 2025, the 4th highest ratio in the country. Natural gas produced 58.2% of that electricity, up 30.5 percentage points since 2015, and nuclear plants 30.5%; coal fell to 7.0%⁵. Those plants sell into the regional PJM market, so the supply part of Pennsylvania bills follows regional prices.

Natural gasCoalNuclearHydroWindSolarPetroleumOther

Pennsylvania, 2025

Pennsylvania, 2015

United States, 2025

Source: EIA, Net generation by state by type of producer by energy source. Share of net generation by all power plants located in the state (utilities and independent producers), by energy source. Electricity crosses state lines, so this is what the state produces, not exactly what its customers consume. Pumped storage is a net user of power and is left out.

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	Natural gas	Coal	Nuclear	Hydro	Wind	Solar	Petroleum	Other
Pennsylvania, 2025	58.2%	7.0%	30.5%	1.0%	1.6%	0.7%	0.1%	0.8%
Pennsylvania, 2015	27.7%	30.1%	37.5%	1.2%	1.6%	0.0%	0.3%	1.5%
United States, 2025	40.9%	16.6%	17.7%	5.5%	10.4%	6.8%	0.4%	1.7%

Even so, over the last 12 months Pennsylvania's residential price was 15.6% above the US average, well below its neighbor New York (28.60¢ per kWh) and above West Virginia (15.53¢ per kWh¹), the cheapest of its 6 neighbors.

New York28.60¢

New Jersey23.74¢

Maryland21.18¢

Pennsylvania20.86¢

Ohio18.41¢

United States18.04¢

Delaware17.98¢

West Virginia15.53¢

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Residential revenue divided by kilowatt-hours sold over the 12 months 2025-09 to 2026-08 (EIA-861M; months since January 2026 preliminary). Average revenue per kWh, all charges included; not a tariff. Period: September 2025 to August 2026.

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Area	Residential ¢/kWh, 12 months
New York	28.60¢
New Jersey	23.74¢
Maryland	21.18¢
Pennsylvania	20.86¢
Ohio	18.41¢
United States	18.04¢
Delaware	17.98¢
West Virginia	15.53¢

Default service or a supplier

Every Pennsylvanian's electricity is delivered by one utility, but the supply can come from the utility's default service, priced at the Price to Compare, or from a licensed supplier. The PUC's PAPowerSwitch counted 21.7% of residential customers with a supplier on June 30, 2026, from 32.0% in PPL's territory to 16.8%⁶ in Penn Power's. EIA's annual count for 2025 is 22.4%⁷.

What each part of the market collected in 2025 differs a great deal. Utility default-service customers paid 18.75¢ per kWh for supply and delivery together. Suppliers' residential customers paid them 12.92¢ per kWh for supply alone, and the utilities charged those customers 8.08¢ per kWh⁷ for delivery. The two parts cover different customers, so they cannot be added into a like-for-like comparison; the Pennsylvania retail choice guide explains how to compare an offer with your own Price to Compare.

Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery18.75¢

Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only12.92¢

Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only8.08¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Average revenue per kWh by service part, EIA-861 2025. Supply-only and delivery-only averages each cover only part of a bill and different groups of customers; adding them gives only a rough estimate of what a shopping customer paid in total.

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Part of the market	¢/kWh
Utility full-service customers (default service): supply and delivery	18.75¢
Competitive suppliers and CCAs: supply only	12.92¢
Utility delivery for customers of a supplier: delivery only	8.08¢

Four utilities deliver almost all of it

FirstEnergy Pennsylvania (which merged the former Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power companies), PECO, PPL Electric Utilities and Duquesne Light serve the great majority of homes. Their default-service averages in 2025 were close together except in Pittsburgh: PECO 18.02¢ per kWh, PPL 18.60¢ per kWh, FirstEnergy Pennsylvania 18.77¢ per kWh and Duquesne Light 23.47¢ per kWh, the highest of the state's larger utilities. Delivery charges for shoppers ranged from 6.51¢ per kWh at PPL to 11.94¢ per kWh⁷ at Duquesne.

Somerset Rural Electric Cooperative14.37¢

Valley Rural Electric Cooperative15.13¢

Adams Electric Cooperative15.41¢

Northwestern Rural E C A16.08¢

REA Energy Cooperative16.14¢

Central Electric Cooperative16.90¢

PECO18.02¢

PPL Electric Utilities18.60¢

Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative18.73¢

FirstEnergy Pennsylvania18.77¢

Pennsylvania average19.29¢

UGI Utilities19.77¢

Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative22.38¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Utilities with 10,000 or more bundled (full-service) residential customers; the 12 lowest of 13 shown. Revenue divided by kWh sold, all charges included, EIA-861 2025 final. Darker bars have their own page. In this state, customers who buy supply from a competitive supplier are not in these averages (they pay delivery to the utility and supply to the supplier).

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Utility	¢/kWh
Somerset Rural Electric Cooperative	14.37¢
Valley Rural Electric Cooperative	15.13¢
Adams Electric Cooperative	15.41¢
Northwestern Rural E C A	16.08¢
REA Energy Cooperative	16.14¢
Central Electric Cooperative	16.90¢
PECO	18.02¢
PPL Electric Utilities	18.60¢
Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative	18.73¢
FirstEnergy Pennsylvania	18.77¢
Pennsylvania average	19.29¢
UGI Utilities	19.77¢
Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative	22.38¢

FirstEnergy Pennsylvania only (of these)PECO only (of these)PPL Electric Utilities only (of these)Duquesne Light only (of these)Two or more of themOther utilities only

Source: EIA-861 2025, service territory; Census Bureau, Cartographic boundary file, counties. Counties where each utility reports serving customers (EIA-861 service territory, 2025). A utility often serves only part of a county, and several can share one: the map shows where each one is present, not street-level boundaries. Point at a county for every utility listed there.

Winter, not summer, sets the peak

Pennsylvania's use per home peaked at 1,129 kWh in January 2026 and was lowest at 624 kWh in May 2026. Electric heat in 26.7%¹⁰ of homes and a cold climate (5,358¹¹ heating degree days a year on average) put the peak of use in winter rather than summer. In August 2026, a summer month, the average home used 911 kWh and the computed bill was $198.28¹.

699Sep

648Oct

719Nov

1,035Dec

1,129Jan

1,030Feb

805Mar

635Apr

624May

785Jun

1,020Jul

911Aug

Source: EIA, Electric Power Monthly / EIA-861M sales and revenue by state. Residential kWh sold per customer in each month. The table adds that month's average residential price. Monthly EIA data through August 2026 (released October 23, 2026); months since January 2026 are preliminary.

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Month	kWh per customer	Residential ¢/kWh
September 2025	699	20.43¢
October 2025	648	20.48¢
November 2025	719	20.15¢
December 2025	1,035	20.07¢
January 2026	1,129	20.19¢
February 2026	1,030	20.30¢
March 2026	805	20.92¢
April 2026	635	21.47¢
May 2026	624	21.55¢
June 2026	785	21.73¢
July 2026	1,020	21.71¢
August 2026	911	21.77¢

Bills, outages and help

The average residential bill reached $161.90 in 2025, the 12th highest in the country and $11.22 more a month than the US average². In the Census Bureau's 2025 survey, 25.7% of households paying for electricity reported a bill of $250 or more, +3.9 percentage points¹² on the year before (a difference between two survey estimates, not tested for significance).

Customers averaged 458 minutes without power in 2025 including major storms, 8th highest among the states, but only 133 minutes¹³ excluding them: storms, not everyday failures, drove the total.

Pennsylvania received $232.5 million¹⁴ in federal heating and cooling assistance (LIHEAP) for fiscal 2026. The help paying your electric bill guide covers LIHEAP and the utilities' own assistance programs.