PECO Philadelphia Electric Rates: Energy Choice Guide 2026

PECO (formerly Philadelphia Electric Company) is Pennsylvania's biggest electric utility. They serve 1.7 million customers across southeastern Pennsylvania.^[1] That's a lot of light bulbs.

PECO is owned by Exelon Corporation and has been keeping the lights on in Philadelphia for over 140 years. They also handle natural gas service for about 545,000 customers, but we're focused on electricity here.

Note: PECO doesn't generate any power. They just deliver it. Think of them as the middleman between power plants and your house. They maintain the poles, wires, transformers, and everything else needed to get electricity from point A to point B.

You get your electricity supply in one of two ways. Either you stick with PECO's default service (which changes every quarter), or you shop around and pick a competitive supplier. Either way, PECO still delivers the power, sends your bill, and shows up when the lights go out.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PA PUC) regulates PECO's delivery rates and makes sure they play fair. But thanks to Pennsylvania's electricity choice program, you can choose who generates your power while PECO handles everything else. Same wires, different supplier, potentially lower rates.

PECO covers about 2,100 square miles of southeastern Pennsylvania. We're talking Philadelphia proper and all the surrounding counties where people commute from.

Philadelphia County gets the whole city. If you live in Philly, you're on PECO. No exceptions.

Bucks County includes Doylestown, Bristol, and Newtown. Montgomery County covers Norristown, King of Prussia (where everyone goes shopping), and Lansdale. Delaware County gets Media, Upper Darby, and Chester. And they serve parts of Chester County, including West Chester and the areas around it.

That's urban neighborhoods, historic suburbs with century-old houses, and newer developments pushing into the exurbs. Residential customers, businesses, industrial facilities. All types.

If you're anywhere in PECO territory, you can shop for electricity suppliers through PA Power Switch. Every residential customer has access to competitive rates. The question is whether you're using that access or just paying whatever PECO charges by default.

The PECO Price to Compare is the rate you pay for electricity generation and transmission when you're on PECO's default service. As of December 2025, that rate is 11.02 cents per kWh. It stays at that level through May 31, 2026.

That 11.02 cents isn't just generation. It includes transmission costs (moving power across high-voltage lines), Pennsylvania's gross receipts tax, and compliance costs for the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards. Basically, everything except the local delivery charges.

PECO updates this rate every quarter. March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1. Sometimes it goes up. Sometimes it goes down. Lately it's been going up.

Early 2024, you were paying 8.92 cents per kWh. By late 2025, that jumped to over 11 cents. The main driver was PJM capacity market costs exploding. We'll get into that mess in the next section.

What matters: any supplier rate below 11.02 cents saves you money immediately on the generation portion of your bill. That's your baseline for comparison shopping.

PECO bills jumped hard between 2024 and 2025. The Price to Compare went from under 9 cents to over 11 cents per kWh. That hurts when you're trying to keep the lights on and the AC running.

The main problem is something called the PJM capacity market. PJM runs the electric grid across the mid-Atlantic states, and they hold auctions to make sure there's enough power plant capacity available when we need it. In June 2024, one of those auctions went completely sideways.

Prices jumped from around $29 per megawatt-day to nearly $270. That's an 833% increase. Not a typo. The auction cleared at almost ten times what utilities were expecting.

Why did capacity prices explode? Three big reasons. First, old power plants keep retiring faster than new ones get built. Second, data centers are sucking up more electricity than anyone predicted a few years ago. Third, transmission lines can't always move power where it needs to go when it needs to be there.

PECO has to pass those wholesale costs straight through to customers via quarterly PTC adjustments. December 2025 brought a 7.7% rate increase. More will probably come.

One way out: competitive suppliers face the same wholesale costs, but some offer fixed-price contracts that lock your rate for a year or two. You might pay a bit more upfront, but you avoid the surprise spikes.

Pennsylvania electricity choice lets PECO customers shop for generation while PECO keeps delivering the power. Switching takes about five minutes.

Grab your PECO bill. Find your account number and current Price to Compare. Then head to PAPowerSwitch.com or ElectricRates.org to compare offers. Filter by rate type (fixed or variable), contract length, and renewable content for environmentally-conscious customers.

When you find something cheaper than your current PTC, enroll online or by phone. You need your account number, service address, and some form of ID. The supplier handles everything else. They notify PECO. Takes one to two billing cycles to complete.

Your lights never flicker. No trucks show up. No installation. PECO keeps reading your meter, sending your bill, and fixing outages. Only the generation line item changes. Same service, different rate. That's it.

ElectricRates.org automatically calculates your savings against PECO's current PTC, which saves you from doing math. You can switch back to PECO's default service anytime you want. No one holds you hostage, though some contracts have early termination fees if you leave before the term ends.

PECO bills split your costs into chunks. Some you can shop for. Some you can't.

Generation charges cover the actual electricity supply. This is either PECO's Price to Compare or whatever rate you locked in with a competitive supplier. This is the only part where shopping saves you money.

Transmission charges pay for moving power from generators across high-voltage lines to PECO's local network. You don't shop for this.

Distribution charges cover the local stuff. Power lines on your street. Transformers. Meters. Trucks that show up when trees knock down wires. Stays with PECO no matter who supplies your power.

Customer charge is a fixed monthly fee just for having an account. Think of it like a connection fee. Most utilities charge something similar.

Riders and adjustments pay for things like energy efficiency programs, smart meter deployments, and regulatory compliance costs. These change occasionally but you have no control over them.

Your bill shows usage in kilowatt-hours (kWh). That number lets you compare supplier rates directly. If you use 1,000 kWh and your rate is 11 cents per kWh, you pay $110 for generation that month. Simple math.

When you switch to a competitive supplier, they replace PECO's generation charge with their rate. PECO still sends one consolidated bill with everything on it. They maintain your account. You just pay less (hopefully) for the generation portion.

PECO handles every power outage in their territory. Doesn't matter if you switched suppliers or not. Your lights go out, PECO fixes them.

Report outages three ways. Online at PECO.com. Through the PECO mobile app. Or call 1-800-841-4141. The outage map shows affected areas with estimated restoration times and crew locations.

PECO maintains about 24,000 miles of power lines across southeastern Pennsylvania. They spend over $300 million annually on grid reliability. Underground cable replacement. Smart grid technology. Vegetation management so trees don't take down lines every time the wind picks up.

When major storms hit, PECO coordinates mutual aid with other utilities. Crews come from Ohio, New York, and other states to help restore power faster.

What matters: your supplier choice never affects outage response. PECO crews respond to all customers equally. The customer who switched to a competitive supplier gets the same service as the person still on PECO's default rate. Same poles, same wires, same response time.

Downed power lines are emergencies. Report them immediately and stay away from the hazard. PECO prioritizes safety issues over routine outages.

If you're struggling with your PECO bill, several programs might help.

LIHEAP provides federally-funded bill payment assistance through the PA Department of Human Services. Apply during their enrollment periods. Many people qualify who don't realize it.

Customer Assistance Program (CAP) offers reduced rates for qualifying low-income households. Your bill gets capped at an affordable percentage of your income instead of varying wildly with usage. This is different from just getting help paying one month's bill.

Matching Energy Assistance Fund (MEAF) handles emergency assistance using donations and PECO contributions. When you're in a bind and other programs can't help fast enough, MEAF might fill the gap.

Budget Billing spreads your annual costs into equal monthly payments. Kills those seasonal bill spikes where summer AC or winter heat suddenly doubles your payment. You pay the same amount every month based on your average usage.

PECO offers payment extensions and installment plans if you call customer service at 1-800-494-4000. Don't just ignore a bill you can't pay. Call them. They'd rather work out a payment plan than send you to collections.

Cold weather shutoff protection runs December 1 through March 31 for income-eligible customers. Pennsylvania won't let utilities shut off your heat in winter if you qualify for certain assistance programs. Medical certificates provide additional disconnection protection if someone in your household has a medical condition that requires electricity.

If you want renewable energy in PECO territory, you've got options. Some cost extra. Some don't.

Many competitive suppliers on PA Power Switch offer 100% renewable plans. Wind, solar, hydroelectric. Physical electrons from the grid all mix together regardless of source, but your money funds renewable generation when you pick these plans. Prices vary. Sometimes green plans cost less than PECO's default rate. Sometimes they cost more.

PECO Green Region lets you purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) that support regional clean energy projects. You pay a small premium per kWh. The money funds renewable development.

Community solar programs let you subscribe to local solar projects and receive bill credits without installing panels on your roof. Good option if you rent, live in a condo, or have a shady roof that makes residential solar impractical.

Some Philadelphia neighborhoods offer bulk purchasing programs for solar installations. Pooling demand gets better pricing than going solo.

When evaluating green energy plans, compare the price premium against PECO's standard PTC. A plan that's 2 cents per kWh more expensive costs an extra $20 monthly for typical usage. Decide if that's worth it to you. Also verify renewable content claims through supplier documentation. Some marketing is greenwashing.

Switching suppliers cuts your per-kWh cost. But using less electricity in the first place saves even more.

PECO offers home energy assessments, appliance rebates, and weatherization assistance for qualifying households. Free money to make your house more efficient. Take advantage of it.

Smart thermostats reduce heating and cooling costs by 10-15%. They learn your schedule and adjust automatically. No more heating an empty house all day because you forgot to turn down the thermostat.

LED lighting uses 75% less energy than those old incandescent bulbs. They also last forever.

Air sealing matters more in Philadelphia's older housing stock. Those beautiful rowhomes and historic colonials leak air like crazy. Seal gaps around windows and doors.

Time-of-use rates might benefit you if you can shift usage to off-peak hours. Run your dishwasher at night. Do laundry on weekends. Not for everyone, but worth checking if you have flexibility.

Shop for supplier rates at least twice yearly. Markets change. PECO's PTC changes quarterly. As of late 2025, competitive suppliers offer rates as low as 7.7 cents per kWh. That's over 25% below PECO's current 11.02 cent PTC. Real savings.

Use PAPowerSwitch.com to verify your current rate remains competitive. If it doesn't, switch again. No one rewards loyalty in deregulated electricity markets.