BETHLEHEM, Pa. — PPL Electric Utilities, which has been under fire for a recent billing error that affected thousands, said Wednesday that more than 100,000 customers in its service area are paying more for their electricity than they need to.
While addressing the “temporary issue in December when our billing system was prevented from accessing our meter data,” a PPL spokeswoman said the company wants to do what it can to be an educational resource to customers.
- PPL Electric Utilities said more than 100,000 customers are paying too much for electricity
- The company said more than 20,000 of those customers paid over twice the company's 'price to compare'
- PPL says this compounds the billing error from December now being investigated by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commmission
The company said that at the end of November, more than 100,000 PPL customers were paying 25% to 100% more than the default rate for their electric supply.
And nearly 20,000 of those customers paid more than twice PPL’s price to compare.
“To put the latter point in perspective, a customer paying double today’s price to compare is paying nearly $150 more than they need to for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity they use,” PPL spokeswoman Jane George said.
“That adds up in a big way, and we’ve heard from some of these customers in recent weeks as they’ve called in with high bill concerns.”
Price to compare
In Pennsylvania, customers can choose the company that generates their electricity — also known as the electric supplier. That means they can switch to a competing supplier if they offer a lower price.
But PPL does not produce electricity or control supply. Its job is to deliver power to customers, George said (which is why customers see supply and distribution as separate parts of their electric bill).
A customer paying double today’s price to compare is paying nearly $150 more than they need to for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity they use. That adds up in a big way.PPL spokeswoman Jane George
PPL said geopolitical issues, supply constraints, inflation and other market forces have caused the price of electricity to spike sharply over the past two years. But it said some customers don’t understand their ability to shop around for an electric supplier, or fail to shop when their contracts expire.
“If customers don’t shop, we’re required to shop for power on their behalf and 60 percent of our customers rely on us to do that,” George said, explaining the company requests bids from suppliers through a process approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
“We secure a mix of short-, mid- and long-term contracts for electricity supply,” George said. “Prices secured in those contracts are reflected in our default rate for electricity supply, also known as the ‘price to compare.’
"Our price to compare is adjusted twice a year to reflect ongoing power purchases, which, in turn, reflect the prices provided by suppliers in the process.”
George said as market forces drove wholesale power prices higher, PPL’s price to compare increased by nearly 18% on Dec. 1 and has nearly doubled over the past two years.
Those customers who don’t shop around saw those increases reflected in their electricity bills on Dec. 1, compounding the billing error.
'Avoid unwelcome surprises'
George said PPL has consistently encouraged customers to consider all of their options for electric suppliers by visiting PAPowerSwitch.com. She also encouraged customers to carefully review the terms and conditions of any supply contract before moving forward, including the contract terms, cancellation fees and any other conditions that may apply.
“To avoid unwelcome surprises, customers should be particularly diligent in understanding variable rate offers, as well as how fixed-price offers may change once the customer’s contract term expires," she said.
While saying the issue "exacerbated high billing concerns," PPL did not offer any further comment about its recent issuing of erroneous bills to customers. Those bills were based on an “estimated” usage and were much higher than normal.
Some customers reported bills that were hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars higher than normal.
The company said the error would be resolved in the next billing cycle, but PPL still was asking customers to pay the amount they were billed.
On Jan. 31, the PUC said it had said it had initiated a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding that billing by PPL, along with the accuracy and integrity of its billing practices.
The PUC’s Bureau of Consumer Services is working to assist individual consumers, while the border investigation by its Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement continues.
