PPL Electric Pennsylvania Rates: Eastern PA Service Guide

PPL Electric delivers electricity to 1.5 million homes and businesses across 29 counties in eastern and central Pennsylvania.^[1] That's a lot of territory.

Headquartered in Allentown, PPL Electric owns the poles, wires, and transformers. They maintain 50,600 miles of power lines. When your lights go out at 2am, PPL's crew shows up to fix it. That part never changes, regardless of who you pick for your electricity supplier.

Here's what confuses people: PPL Electric doesn't generate any electricity. They just deliver it. You can stick with PPL's default supply service, or you can shop around and pick from dozens of competitive suppliers. Either way, PPL still owns the infrastructure and shows up when things break.

The PA PUC regulates PPL's delivery rates and makes sure everything stays fair. Pennsylvania opened its electricity market back in 1996, which means you've had choice for nearly 30 years now. Most people just don't know it.

PPL Electric covers 29 counties across eastern and central Pennsylvania. Big chunk of the state.

In the Lehigh Valley, that's Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton. Central PA includes Lancaster and Harrisburg. Up northeast, you've got Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Hazleton.

Geographically, PPL's territory runs from the New Jersey border in the east all the way past Harrisburg to the west. North to the New York border. South to Maryland. Key counties include Lehigh, Northampton, Lancaster, Berks, Schuylkill, Luzerne, Lackawanna, Lebanon, and Dauphin.

What I like about PPL's service area is the diversity. Historic cities like Lancaster. Rural agricultural areas where you can still see working farms. Growing Lehigh Valley suburbs where development keeps popping up. Different communities, different needs, but everyone gets access to the same electricity choice program.

If you're in PPL territory, you can compare supplier offers on PAPowerSwitch.com. Every residential customer qualifies.

The Price to Compare is your benchmark. It's what you pay PPL Electric for generation and transmission if you don't pick a competitive supplier.

Right now (December 2025 through May 2026), the residential Price to Compare is 12.95 cents per kilowatt-hour. That's just the generation piece. You'll pay extra for delivery no matter who supplies your power.

Look at how much this has climbed. Before December 2024, you were paying 10.04 cents. Then it jumped to 10.77 cents in December 2024. Then 12.49 cents in June 2025. Now 12.95 cents. That's nearly a 29% increase in just one year.

PPL updates the Price to Compare twice a year on June 1st and December 1st. The rate covers generation supply costs, transmission charges, and regulatory compliance. When wholesale markets move, your Price to Compare moves with them.

When you're shopping for suppliers, only look at offers below 12.95 cents. Anything higher means you're paying more than sticking with PPL's default service. Simple math.

If your PPL Electric bill jumped in 2024 and 2025, you're not imagining things. The Price to Compare climbed about 16% in June 2025 alone. Over the full year, we're talking roughly 30% higher bills for most customers.

The culprit? PJM capacity market costs.

PJM (the organization running our regional power grid) holds auctions to make sure enough power plants stay online and ready. July 2024's auction cleared at prices nobody saw coming. Capacity costs jumped from around $29 per megawatt-day to nearly $270. That's an 833% increase. Not a typo.

Three things drove the capacity cost spike. First, a bunch of old power plants retired. Less supply means higher prices. Second, data centers are popping up everywhere and sucking down electricity like crazy. Third, transmission bottlenecks make it harder to move power where it's needed.

For a typical PPL customer using 1,000 kWh monthly, that means paying an extra $22 to $28 per month. Multiply that by twelve and you're looking at $264 to $336 more per year.

Competitive suppliers can't avoid these costs either. But a fixed-rate contract locks in your price, so at least you know what you're paying for the next year or two instead of getting hit with surprise increases every six months.

Pennsylvania electricity choice lets you pick who generates your power. PPL Electric still delivers it, reads your meter, and fixes outages. Only the generation part of your bill changes.

Switching takes maybe five minutes if you have your account number handy.

Grab your PPL bill. Find your current Price to Compare (should be 12.95 cents right now). Then compare rates on PAPowerSwitch.com or ElectricRates.org. Filter by rate type (fixed or variable), contract length, renewable energy percentage, and cancellation fees. When you find something better, enroll with that supplier. They handle the whole switch.

ElectricRates.org does the math for you, showing exactly how much you'll save compared to PPL's current rate. PAPowerSwitch shows everything but makes you calculate savings yourself.

The whole switch takes one to two billing cycles. Your power never goes off. Nothing physical changes. You just get a bill with a new supplier name and (hopefully) a lower generation charge.

Changed your mind later? Go back to PPL's default service anytime. No penalty. No questions asked. Delivery charges, outage response, and billing all stay with PPL regardless.

Your PPL Electric bill breaks things down into separate charges. Makes it easier to see where your money goes.

Generation charges cover the actual electricity supply. That's either PPL's Price to Compare or whatever rate you locked in with a competitive supplier. Transmission charges move power from the generators across those big high-voltage lines to PPL's local network. Distribution charges pay for the local stuff (poles, wires, transformers, grid maintenance). This part stays with PPL no matter what. Then there's a customer charge, which is just a fixed monthly fee for being connected to the system.

You'll also see riders and adjustments. Think smart meter deployment, energy efficiency programs, regulatory compliance. They add up but they're usually small.

Your usage shows up in kilowatt-hours. That's the number you need when comparing supplier offers. Some people compare rates without checking their actual kWh usage. Don't do that.

When you switch to a competitive supplier, their charges replace PPL's generation charge on your bill. But PPL still sends the bill. Still manages your account. Still owns the relationship. The supplier just provides the power.

PPL Electric handles all power outages in their territory. Doesn't matter who supplies your electricity. When the lights go out, PPL's trucks show up.

Report outages three ways. Go to PPLElectric.com. Download their mobile app. Or call 1-800-342-5775. The outage map shows which areas are affected, when crews are headed your way, and estimated restoration times. Pretty useful when you're sitting in the dark wondering if you should bother the power company.

PPL maintains 50,600 miles of power lines. That's a lot of wire to keep working. Their service reliability tops 99.9% for most customers. They invest in vegetation management (cutting trees before they fall on lines), equipment upgrades, and smart grid technology that can sometimes reroute power automatically.

When major storms roll through, PPL coordinates with other utilities across the region. Mutual aid agreements mean crews from other states show up to help during extended outages.

One important thing: if you see downed power lines, call immediately and stay far away. PPL prioritizes emergencies for obvious reasons. Don't touch anything, don't assume it's dead, just call and keep everyone clear.

If you're struggling to pay your PPL Electric bill, they've got programs that can help. Worth knowing about before things get worse.

LIHEAP is federally funded bill payment assistance through the PA Department of Human Services. OnTrack is PPL's own program for low-income households. It offers reduced rates and caps your bills at affordable levels based on income. Operation HELP provides emergency grants when you're facing financial hardship.

Budget Billing spreads your annual costs into equal monthly payments. No more getting slammed with huge bills in summer and winter. Payment extensions are available if you call customer service at 1-800-342-5775. Hardship funds exist for qualifying customers.

Pennsylvania has disconnection protections too. The winter shutoff moratorium runs December 1 through March 31 for income-eligible customers. Medical certificates provide additional protection if someone in your household has health conditions.

Don't wait until they're shutting off your power to ask for help. These programs work better when you contact them early.

Different communities across PPL Electric's territory run their own programs to help cut electricity costs. Not every town has the same options, so check what's available where you live.

Some municipalities do municipal aggregation, which means they negotiate bulk electricity rates for all residents. Community solar programs let you subscribe to local solar projects and get bill credits without putting panels on your roof. PACE financing (Property Assessed Clean Energy) helps pay for home energy improvements in some areas. The loan gets repaid through your property taxes over time.

The Lehigh Valley has energy efficiency programs offering rebates on appliances, weatherization assistance, and home energy audits. PPL Electric runs rebate programs too. Efficient HVAC systems, smart thermostats, lighting upgrades. The rebates change, so check their website for current offers.

To find what's available in your specific community, contact your local government and ask. Or call PPL Electric at 1-800-342-5775 and they'll tell you which programs you qualify for.

Switching suppliers is the fastest way to save, but PPL Electric customers can stack savings with other strategies too.

PPL runs home energy assessments, appliance rebates, and weatherization assistance programs. Take advantage of them. Free money is free money.

Smart thermostats cut heating and cooling costs by 10-15%. LED lighting uses 75% less energy than those old incandescent bulbs everybody used to have. Air sealing is huge, especially in older Lehigh Valley and Lancaster area homes. Those drafts around windows and doors are costing you real money. Time-of-use rates might help if you can shift your usage to off-peak hours (though most residential customers won't bother with the hassle).

For supplier shopping, compare offers at least twice yearly when PPL's Price to Compare changes in June and December. Use PAPowerSwitch.com to find rates below the current 12.95 cents. Fixed-rate contracts protect you from future rate increases. With capacity costs jumping like they did in 2024 and 2025, locking in a decent rate for a year or two makes sense.