Shopping for electricity in Pennsylvania: the Price to Compare and suppliers

The utility delivers, you choose who supplies

Every Pennsylvania electric bill from a regulated distribution company has two parts. Delivery always comes from the local utility: it owns the wires and meter, restores power after outages and keeps billing you. Supply, called generation, can come either from the utility's default service or from a licensed electric generation supplier. If you never choose a supplier, you stay on default service.

The official shopping site is PAPowerSwitch, run by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). You enter a ZIP code and it lists suppliers' current residential offers next to your utility's Price to Compare. The site's list of distribution companies where suppliers can serve customers names Citizens' Electric, Duquesne Light, Met-Ed, PECO, Penelec, Penn Power, Pike County Light & Power, PPL Electric Utilities, UGI, Wellsboro Electric and West Penn Power. Rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities are not on that list; in 2025 cooperatives served 169,645 residential customers in the state and public power systems 9,952¹, according to EIA.

EIA's annual census counted 82¹ suppliers with residential customers in Pennsylvania in 2025. Not every licensed supplier posts offers on PAPowerSwitch, and the PUC suggests that anyone comparing suppliers elsewhere check the supplier's name against the commission's list of licensed suppliers.

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

The Price to Compare is the price per kWh your utility charges default-service customers for supply, with Pennsylvania's Gross Receipts Tax included, as PAPowerSwitch's bill guide defines it. It is printed on your bill. A supplier's price replaces only that part of the bill: delivery charges stay the same whichever supplier you use, so the fair comparison is a supplier's price per kWh against your own utility's Price to Compare, not against your total bill divided by kWh.

The Price to Compare is not fixed. Default-service prices for most PUC-regulated utilities reset on December 1 and June 1 each year, and the PUC publishes the new figures for each utility before they take effect. The commission notes that customers already on a supplier contract keep paying the contract price until it ends. Comparing an offer means asking two questions: is the supplier's price below today's Price to Compare, and how long will each price last?

Prices have moved quickly. Over the 12 months to August 2026, Pennsylvania homes paid 20.86¢ per kWh on average, +12.3% against the 12 months before, the 4th highest² increase among the states. That average covers default-service and supplier customers together and includes delivery; it is not a Price to Compare.

How many Pennsylvanians shop, by two counts

Two official sources count shoppers, with different dates and methods:

• The PUC counted 1,147,533 residential customers with a supplier on June 30, 2026, 21.7% of residential accounts. Counting businesses too, 24.0%³ of all customers had a supplier.
• EIA counted 1,247,046 residential customers of suppliers in 2025, 22.4% of the state's residential customers and the 8th highest share among the states. Across the US, 15.1%¹ of homes bought from a supplier, a community choice aggregator or a Texas retail provider.

The PUC figure is a count on a single day; EIA's comes from the annual EIA-861 reports of utilities and suppliers. The gap between them reflects those differences and is not by itself evidence that shopping fell.

In 2025, Pennsylvania's share of homes with a supplier was far above those of its neighbors New Jersey (6.1%), New York (7.3%) and Delaware (5.6%), but well below Ohio (58.1%¹).

Ohio58.1%

Pennsylvania22.4%

United States15.1%

New York7.3%

New Jersey6.1%

Delaware5.6%

Maryland4.8%

West Virginia0.0%

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Residential customers of energy-only suppliers and community choice aggregators (plus Texas retail electric providers) as a share of all residential customers (EIA-861 2025, EIA customer counting: bundled + energy-only + Texas retail provider accounts). Includes municipal or community aggregation where it is reported as energy-only.

Show the numbers

Area	Customers with a supplier
Ohio	58.1%
Pennsylvania	22.4%
United States	15.1%
New York	7.3%
New Jersey	6.1%
Delaware	5.6%
Maryland	4.8%
West Virginia	0.0%

PPL's territory shops the most

The PUC's count breaks shopping down by utility area. On June 30, 2026, the share of residential customers with a supplier ranged from 32.0% in PPL's territory to 16.8%³ in Penn Power's:

Source: Pennsylvania PUC, electric shopping statistics as of June 30, 2026, residential customers. Smaller utilities not shown.

PPL's area alone accounted for 419,788 of the state's 1,147,533³ residential shoppers. EIA's 2025 data show the same order at the company level: 36.2% of PPL's residential delivery customers bought supply from a supplier, against 20.9% at Duquesne Light, 20.4% at PECO and 18.7%¹ at FirstEnergy Pennsylvania. EIA reports Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power together as FirstEnergy Pennsylvania; the PUC's shopping count still lists the four areas separately, and each has its own Price to Compare on PAPowerSwitch.

Default service, shoppers and delivery: what 2025 cost per kWh

EIA's annual census splits what Pennsylvania homes paid by service part. In 2025, default-service customers paid their utilities an average of 18.75¢ per kWh for supply and delivery together. Supplier customers paid their suppliers 12.92¢ per kWh for supply alone, and paid the utilities 8.08¢ per kWh¹ for delivery. Each figure is average revenue per kWh (what customers paid divided by what they used), not a price anyone was offered.

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.

Show the numbers

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¢

The three averages cover different customers and different parts of the bill, so they cannot be added or set against each other to show whether shoppers came out ahead. The like-for-like figure for a supplier's supply price is the Price to Compare, the supply part of default service, which EIA does not report. Supplier averages also mix fixed contracts signed at different times, variable prices and customers who rolled onto new terms when a contract ended.

Delivery charges depend on the utility, not the supplier

Because delivery stays with the utility, the delivery part of a shopper's bill depends on where the home is. In 2025 the utilities' delivery-only revenue from residential supplier customers ranged from 6.51¢ per kWh at PPL to 11.94¢ per kWh at Duquesne Light, with PECO at 10.49¢ per kWh and FirstEnergy Pennsylvania at 7.75¢ per kWh¹. Changes to these charges go through rate cases before the PUC; switching supplier does not change them.

PPL Electric Utilities (PA)6.51¢

FirstEnergy Pennsylvania (PA)7.75¢

PECO (PA)10.49¢

Duquesne Light (PA)11.94¢

Source: EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2025 final. Delivery charges only: what the utility billed customers who buy supply elsewhere, divided by their kWh. Not comparable with bundled prices.

Show the numbers

Utility	delivery-only revenue per kWh (residential)
PPL Electric Utilities (PA)	6.51¢
FirstEnergy Pennsylvania (PA)	7.75¢
PECO (PA)	10.49¢
Duquesne Light (PA)	11.94¢

For default-service customers, who pay both parts to the utility, the 2025 averages were 18.02¢ per kWh at PECO, 18.60¢ per kWh at PPL, 18.77¢ per kWh at FirstEnergy Pennsylvania and 23.47¢ per kWh¹ at Duquesne Light. These bundled figures are not comparable with the delivery-only ones above.

How to compare an offer under Pennsylvania's rules

1. Start with your own Price to Compare, from your bill or PAPowerSwitch, and note when it next changes (June 1 or December 1). A supplier price below today's Price to Compare can end up above the next one, or the other way round.
2. Read the contract summary. Suppliers must give residential customers a disclosure statement under 52 Pa. Code § 54.5, and PAPowerSwitch describes the one-page contract summary that goes with it: whether the price is fixed or variable, the supply price, the price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh when fees or usage tiers apply, any cancellation fee, what happens when the contract ends and your three-business-day right to cancel after enrolling.
3. Know what fixed and variable mean. Under the PUC's definitions, a fixed price stays the same for at least three billing cycles or the contract term, whichever is longer; a variable price can change as the contract allows. For a variable offer, suppliers must provide up to two years of past prices on request.
4. Watch the renewal notices. A supplier sends two notices before a contract ends; the second, the options notice, comes by mail with the new terms and the date by which you must act. If you do nothing, a fixed price can turn into a monthly variable one. Early termination fees do not apply in the last thirty days of a contract.
5. Switching is quick and returning is free. Under the accelerated switching rules a change of supplier usually takes effect within three business days of the utility being notified, and the utility charges nothing to return to default service.
6. The Standard Offer Program is a one-year fixed price set below the Price to Compare at enrollment, with no cancellation fee, through a supplier the utility assigns at random. It is offered only where suppliers take part; PAPowerSwitch lists the utility areas where it is currently available.

If a supplier does not resolve a complaint, you can file an informal complaint with the PUC. Households struggling with bills should ask their utility about its assistance programs; the help paying your electric bill guide covers them and LIHEAP.

Where to read more

The Pennsylvania state page covers prices, bills and the utilities in full, including the latest month (21.77¢ per kWh in August 2026², preliminary). The PJM analysis looks at the wholesale costs behind default-service prices across the region, and the regulated vs deregulated guide compares the two systems. The table below sets Pennsylvania's market beside the other states where households buy from suppliers.