Energy choice · Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Electric Choice: how the program works and when it's worth using
Pennsylvania has a real, usable shopping site and a clear Price to Compare — so if you're going to shop anywhere, it's the easiest place to do it right. Just lock a fixed, full-term rate and ignore the door-knockers.
What Pennsylvania Electric Choice actually is
Electric Choice is Pennsylvania's retail electricity choice program, created by the Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act of 1996 (shopping began statewide in 1999) and overseen by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PA PUC). It lets residential and business customers buy the supply portion of their electricity from a licensed electric generation supplier (EGS) instead of their utility's default rate — the Price to Compare (PTC). Your utility — PECO, PPL, Duquesne Light, Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power, or West Penn Power — keeps delivering the power, reading the meter, and restoring outages no matter who supplies it.
The program is voluntary in both directions: do nothing and you stay on the PTC; switch and you can return to the PTC, typically within a billing cycle or two, with no utility-side fee. The official comparison tool is the PA PUC's PA Power Switch at papowerswitch.com — every licensed supplier's current offer, next to your utility's PTC.
The reset-schedule trap: why 'beats the PTC today' isn't the test
Pennsylvania's PTC isn't a fixed number — it resets on a schedule (quarterly for some utilities, every six months for others) as each utility's wholesale purchases roll through. That creates the state's most common shopping mistake: locking a 12-month fixed offer because it beats TODAY'S PTC, and then watching the PTC reset below your contract two months later.
The honest comparison is a fixed offer against what the PTC will average over your whole contract term — unknowable precisely, but the direction is knowable: PJM capacity costs are locked at essentially their maximum through May 2029, so the floor under PA supply rates is high. That cuts both ways: today's elevated PTCs (PPL 13.1¢, Duquesne 14.1¢ per the PA PUC's June 2026 figures) leave real room for fixed offers to undercut them, and the locked-in capacity costs make a sudden PTC collapse unlikely. Pennsylvania is currently the strongest shopping case among the states we track — provided the offer is fixed, full-term, and fee-free.
Check your own bill first (2 minutes, free)
Find the supply rate on your bill and compare it to your utility's Price to Compare. If a supplier is charging more, you're overpaying for identical electricity — and you can switch back. Our audit runs on your device; we never see your numbers, and we never try to switch you.
Check my rateHow choice works in Pennsylvania
Your utility always handles delivery — the wires and the outages — and you can't shop that part. What you can shop is the supply: the electricity itself. Do nothing and you stay on the default rate, the Price to Compare (PTC). Your utility's Price to Compare resets on a set schedule — quarterly for some utilities, every six months for others — so a supplier rate that beats it today can lose the day it resets.
Pennsylvania's official, commission-run resource is PA Power Switch. It's a neutral, no-commission comparison tool — the only place worth shopping. One catch: it shows a plan's intro rate, not the variable rate it can roll into later, so read the contract's terms box before you sign.
- Pennsylvania is the cleanest state to do this in: the Price to Compare is printed right on your bill, and PA Power Switch is a genuinely usable, commission-run comparison site.
- Because the PTC resets on a schedule, the only fair comparison is a fixed supplier rate against what the PTC will *average* over the whole term — not against today's number.
Step-by-step: we wrote a full guide to using PA Power Switch — what each column means, the three contract terms to check, and the math to do before switching. Read the PA Power Switch guide →
Pennsylvania's utilities — the rate to beat
This is the Price to Compare for each Pennsylvania utility we track — the number a supplier offer has to beat. A "deal" above these is costing you money for the same electricity.
| Utility | PTC | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| PECO Energy | 11.759¢/kWh | |
| West Penn Power (FirstEnergy) | 12.076¢/kWh | |
| PPL Electric Utilities | 13.079¢/kWh | |
| Penelec (FirstEnergy) | 13.143¢/kWh | |
| Penn Power (FirstEnergy) | 13.478¢/kWh | |
| Met-Ed (FirstEnergy) | 13.954¢/kWh | |
| Duquesne Light | 14.14¢/kWh |
Rates change on a schedule — always confirm the current figure on your bill or your utility's site before deciding.
Before you shop, know the traps
The same handful of tactics show up in every choice state: a teaser rate that flips to a variable one, an early-termination fee paired with a variable rate, monthly fees hiding behind a low headline rate, green-energy upsells, and "your utility sent me" pitches at the door. We break down each one — and the rule that cuts through all of them — in the main guide.
Read the full traps breakdown →Common questions
- Is it worth switching electricity suppliers in Pennsylvania?
- Pennsylvania has a real, usable shopping site and a clear Price to Compare — so if you're going to shop anywhere, it's the easiest place to do it right. Just lock a fixed, full-term rate and ignore the door-knockers. The only offer worth taking is a fixed rate, for the full term, with no monthly fee, that beats your Price to Compare — and you compare it on PA Power Switch, not off a phone or door pitch.
- What is the Price to Compare in Pennsylvania?
- It's the per-kWh rate your utility charges for default electricity supply — the PTC — and it's the number any supplier offer has to beat to actually save you money. Your utility buys that power at a wholesale auction and bills it through with no markup. Your utility's Price to Compare resets on a set schedule — quarterly for some utilities, every six months for others — so a supplier rate that beats it today can lose the day it resets.
- Will switching suppliers in Pennsylvania change my service or reliability?
- No. Your utility still owns the wires, reads your meter, and handles outages regardless of who supplies your electricity. Switching only changes the supply line on your bill, and if a supplier goes out of business you're moved back to the default rate automatically.
- What is the Electric Choice program in Pennsylvania?
- Pennsylvania Electric Choice is the PA PUC-overseen program that lets customers choose a licensed electric generation supplier (EGS) for the supply portion of their bill, while their utility continues to deliver power and handle outages. It dates to the state's 1996 restructuring law. Customers who don't choose stay on their utility's default Price to Compare (PTC). The official comparison tool is PA Power Switch at papowerswitch.com.
- Is PA Power Switch legitimate?
- Yes — papowerswitch.com is run by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the state's utility regulator. It earns nothing from your choice. What deserves more skepticism is marketing that borrows the program's credibility: door-to-door or phone pitches claiming to be 'from PA Power Switch,' 'from the PUC,' or 'from your utility.' The PUC runs a website; it does not send salespeople.
- Which PA utility has the most room for supplier savings?
- The ones with the highest Price to Compare: Duquesne Light (14.14¢/kWh, Pittsburgh) and Met-Ed (13.954¢, Reading/York area), verified July 2026 — their PTCs leave the most headroom for fixed offers to undercut. PECO (11.759¢) currently has the state's lowest PTC, so fewer offers clear the worth-it bar in Philadelphia. The math for every utility is on our switching-worth-it page.
- Can I go back to my utility's rate after switching in PA?
- Yes. Returning to the default Price to Compare is your right — contact your utility or the supplier, and the switch back typically takes effect within one or two billing cycles. Your utility cannot charge you a fee for returning. The only cost to watch is the SUPPLIER's early-termination fee, which is why we recommend only signing fixed-rate contracts with no cancellation fee.
RateWatchdog takes no supplier commissions and never enrolls or switches anyone. See the full energy-choice guide →