Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states where shopping for electricity can genuinely save you money — and one of the states where it has genuinely burned people. Both things are true at the same time, which is why this page is blunt about the traps. Here's how the market actually works, what number you're trying to beat, and the mistakes Pennsylvania's own consumer watchdogs keep documenting.
The straight answer: yes, you can choose — and it can pay, but not on autopilot
If your home is served by one of Pennsylvania's investor-owned utilities — PECO, PPL, Duquesne Light, or one of the FirstEnergy companies — you have full residential choice of electricity supplier. Dozens of licensed suppliers compete statewide, and in the big utility territories you'll typically find 75–150 or more residential offers live at any given time.
Is switching worth it? The honest verdict: winnable, but not automatic. Fixed-rate offers priced below the utility's default rate do appear — and they've appeared more often lately, because capacity-cost increases in 2025–26 pushed default prices up across the state, giving suppliers a bigger target to undercut. But the Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate and local reporting as recent as February 2026 keep finding the same pattern: people switch to an attractive intro rate, forget about it, and end up paying more than they ever would have on default service once the intro term rolls over. Pennsylvania's market rewards people who treat shopping like a small recurring chore — check the rate, calendar the end date, re-shop — and quietly taxes everyone who signs once and stops paying attention.
What you're actually choosing (and what stays the same)
Retail choice covers only the supply portion of your bill — the electricity itself. Your local utility still owns the poles and wires, delivers the power, restores outages, and sends your bill no matter which supplier you pick. Delivery charges are identical whether you shop or not, and switching has zero effect on reliability. It also has zero effect on the wiring inside your walls — for panels, breakers, and when a problem is actually yours to fix, start with our electrical guide.
Do nothing, and you're on default service: your utility buys power on your behalf through competitive procurements approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and passes the cost through to you. Default service isn't a punishment rate. It's the benchmark — the number every competing offer has to beat before switching makes any sense.
The Price to Compare: the only number that matters
Your default rate appears on every Pennsylvania electric bill as the Price to Compare, or PTC — the state prints it right on the statement precisely so you can hold shopping offers up against it. The PTC isn't fixed: it resets quarterly to semiannually as the PUC-approved procurements behind it roll over. That moving target is half the game. A fixed offer that beats today's PTC might lose to next year's, and an offer that looks mediocre now can turn into a win if default rates keep climbing.
The one legitimate place to compare offers is PA Power Switch, the official shopping site run by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. It lists only licensed suppliers, lets you filter to fixed-rate plans, and shows each offer next to your utility's current Price to Compare.
What electricity costs in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's average residential rate was 19.0¢ per kilowatt-hour as of April 2025 (EIA). The near-term pressure is upward: capacity-cost increases landing in 2025–26 have pushed utilities' Prices to Compare higher, which is exactly why more below-PTC competitive offers exist right now. Here's the longer arc of what Pennsylvania households have paid:
Full Pennsylvania electricity price data (1990–2025)
| Year | Pennsylvania (¢/kWh) | US avg (¢/kWh) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 9.2 | 7.8 |
| 1991 | 9.6 | 8.0 |
| 1992 | 9.7 | 8.2 |
| 1993 | 9.6 | 8.3 |
| 1994 | 9.6 | 8.4 |
| 1995 | 9.7 | 8.4 |
| 1996 | 9.7 | 8.4 |
| 1997 | 9.9 | 8.4 |
| 1998 | 9.9 | 8.3 |
| 1999 | 8.9 | 8.2 |
| 2000 | 9.5 | 8.2 |
| 2001 | 9.7 | 8.6 |
| 2002 | 9.7 | 8.4 |
| 2003 | 9.6 | 8.7 |
| 2004 | 9.6 | 9.0 |
| 2005 | 9.9 | 9.5 |
| 2006 | 10.4 | 10.4 |
| 2007 | 11.0 | 10.7 |
| 2008 | 11.4 | 11.3 |
| 2009 | 11.7 | 11.5 |
| 2010 | 12.7 | 11.5 |
| 2011 | 13.3 | 11.7 |
| 2012 | 12.8 | 11.9 |
| 2013 | 12.8 | 12.1 |
| 2014 | 13.3 | 12.5 |
| 2015 | 13.6 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 13.9 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | 14.2 | 12.9 |
| 2018 | 13.9 | 12.9 |
| 2019 | 13.8 | 13.0 |
| 2020 | 13.6 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 13.8 | 13.7 |
| 2022 | 15.9 | 15.0 |
| 2023 | 18.1 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 17.8 | 16.5 |
| 2025 * | 19.3 | 17.3 |
Source: US EIA, average residential retail electricity price. Values in cents per kWh. * 2025 is preliminary.
The long-run trend matters for planning, not just shopping. If rates keep grinding upward, two things get more valuable: locking a fair fixed rate when you actually find one, and reducing how much grid electricity you buy at all. At 19¢/kWh, rooftop panels start penciling out on more Pennsylvania roofs than people assume — see our solar panels guide for how that math works.
The traps: door-knockers, teaser rates, and the polar-vortex lesson
Pennsylvania's shopping market has a scam ecosystem attached, and the state's own institutions say so. The PUC, the Attorney General, and the Office of Consumer Advocate have all repeatedly warned about aggressive door-to-door and phone solicitors posing as representatives of your utility. The script is always similar: someone claims to be "from PECO" or "with PPL," says they need to "verify your bill" or "apply a discount," and asks to see your statement. The account number on that bill is all they need to switch your supply without your genuine consent. Your utility does not send people to your door to sell contracts.
The second trap is variable rates, and Pennsylvania learned this one the hard way. During the 2014 polar vortex, customers on variable-rate contracts saw bills spike — in some cases tripling in a single month — because nothing capped what the rate could float to. That episode is the reason Pennsylvania now requires clearer contract-renewal disclosures from suppliers. Use them: the renewal notice, not the signup rate, is where fixed plans quietly convert to month-to-month variable pricing.
The third trap is simple drift. The Office of Consumer Advocate and local reporting from February 2026 keep documenting switchers who ended up paying more than default service after their intro term expired. Not scam victims — just people who stopped watching.
If you do shop: the six-step checklist
- Find your Price to Compare on your latest bill. That's your break-even number for everything that follows.
- Shop only on PA Power Switch, where every listed supplier is PUC-licensed. If an offer arrived by phone, at your door, or on a third-party "deals" site, verify the supplier's license and the exact terms on the official site first — or just skip it.
- Choose fixed, not variable. 2014 already demonstrated what an uncapped variable rate can do to a winter bill in Pennsylvania.
- Do full-term math. Add monthly fees and check the cancellation charge; a below-PTC rate with a fat early-exit fee isn't really below the PTC.
- Calendar the contract end date the day you sign, with a reminder a month early. This single habit is what separates the winners from the February 2026 cautionary tales.
- Read every renewal notice. That's where the rate actually changes. Pennsylvania's disclosure rules force suppliers to tell you — but only reading it protects you.
Sources
- PA Power Switch — the Pennsylvania PUC's official electricity shopping site
- Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission — default service, supplier licensing, and consumer alerts
- U.S. Energy Information Administration — residential electricity rate data (April 2025)