The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA

Lewisburg Region

Discussion

January 4, 2013

Citizen's Electric cutting supply rate by 15 percent

The Daily Item

LEWISBURG — Customers of Citizens’ Electric Co. will see smaller electric bills beginning this month.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Wednesday approved a request by the utility to decrease its generation supply service rate by 15 percent for the first quarter of 2013.

The generation supply service rate, also known as the energy charge, covers the utility’s costs associated with purchasing power for its customers.

“The generation rate is a straight pass-through charge,” said Jeff Fetzer, Citizens’ Electric vice president for communications. “Citizens’ Electric is not permitted to make a profit on it.”

The new generation rate of 6.2543 cents per kilowatt-hour reflects a decrease of 1.104 cents per kWh when compared with the fourth-quarter 2012 generation charge of 7.3583 cents per kWh.

The new rate will be reflected on bills rendered through March 31.

As a result of the rate adjustment, the total monthly bill of a residential customer using 500 kWh of electricity will decrease by $5.52, or 9.96 percent, from $55.40 to $49.88. The total bill includes generation and distribution charges, as well as state taxes.

Citizens’ Electric Co. serves approximately 6,800 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Lewisburg borough, and East Buffalo, Buffalo and Kelly townships in Union County as well as West Chillisquaque Township in Northumberland County.

Meanwhile, PPL Electric Utilities changed its generation service charge on Dec. 1, based on the latest costs to supply service to customers who do not choose an alternative supplier in the competitive power market.

The utility’s generation and transmission rates combined make up the “price to compare,” which will decrease slightly for residential and small commercial customers on the utility’s default supply service.

For residential customers, the new price to compare will be 7.544 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from 7.907 cents per kilowatt-hour.

For small-business customers, the new price to compare will be 10.206 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with 10.346 cents per kilowatt-hour.

PPL Electric Utilities adjusts its generation rates and prices to compare for residential and small-business customers every three months to reflect the cost of power purchases and adjustments based on customer use in the prior period.

The generation rate for large industrial customers is based on hourly market prices. The company’s generation rates change March 1, June 1, Sept. 1 and Dec. 1 each year, similar to other utilities in Pennsylvania.

PPL Electric Utilities provides electric delivery services to about 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania.

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