If you live in Pennsylvania you are now in the position to be able to compare multiple electricity suppliers. On January 1st 2010 Pennsylvania quit subsidizing the monopoly electricity companies at a set price which caused them to need to raise their electricity prices in order to continue to make a profit. Competitive electricity companies were than able to come in and sell energy at the market price which is generally lower in price than the monopoly electricity company you are with now.

List of Electric Distribution Companies in PA

• Allegheny Power

• Citizens Electric Company

• Duquesne Light Company

• Met-Ed (formerly GPU Energy)

• PECO Energy

• Penelec (formerly GPU Energy)

• Penn Power

• Pike County Light and Power

• PPL Electric Utilities

• UGI

• Wellsboro Electric Company

These PA electric utilities are the companies that own the poles and wires in your electric utility area. You may use them now to purchase your electricity in Pennsylvania as well. Since you have been using the same monopoly electric company for possibly decades you probably have not had the need to put down a deposit to turn on electric service. If you have bad credit or no established credit you may be required to pay a deposit when switching to a cheaper electricity company in PA.

Because an electricity utilities deposit in Pennsylvania is so much it can really put a burden on a family that also had to pay a landlord for a deposit on an apartment, house, or duplex. You could end up needing to pay close to $1,000 when paying all your utility deposits and rental deposits. This type of money is outside the budgets of many Pennsylvanians budgets. There are some ways around this large deposit and we recommend calling one of our energy consultants to see if we can work with your chosen electricity provider and the PA state social services office to waive your deposit amount. You may call us at 1-800-971-4020

Notice Regarding Prepaid Electricity Companies

There are prepaid electricity companies you can sign up with that will turn your electricity service on in your PA home with no deposit required. The issue regarding a prepaid electricity company is that you may be required to to pay two to three times as much for your kilowatt hour rate as your neighbor might be paying. A prepaid electricity company in Pennsylvania will hook you in with the promise of a low connection fee as low as $99. The problem is they will call you back only a couple weeks later asking for more money. These calls will persist until you have prepaid for teh whole month. If you fail to pay your electricity service will be turned off. Your total payments for one month in a Pennsylvania apartment could be anywhere from $200 – $500 depending on what the prepaid electricity company is going to charge.

Be sure to get a per kilowatt hour price from the prepaid electric company in PA you are considering. Multiply the rate times the average Pennsylvania electric usage of 700 kWh a month. This will give you a guestimate on what your total electric bill will look like. Confirm the total you calculated with any estimates the prepaid electricity company has to see if you are averaging their electricity price right.

Another point should be made about where the Pennsylvania electric company gets their usage estimates for your residence. These pay as you go electricity providers will use last years estimates from the previous tenant at your address. Regardless of how you use your energy you will be charged based on the previous tenants usage history. This is the way a prepaid electricity company works until smart meters are installed at your house.

When smart meters go into effect in Pennsylvania certain prepaid electricity suppliers will have an advanced meter retrofit device that will hook up to the meter. These devices can keep track of your prepaid usage in real time and allow you to prepay only for real time data rather than estimates on someone elses usage. The new smart meter technology will allow prepaid electricity service with no deposit to be sold for cheap. This type of service is not yet available in Pennsylvania but keep an eye out as it is in the works by companies such as First Choice Power which is already working on something in Texas.