PA Alternative Electric Companies Now Have More Than a Million Customers

More than a million Pennsylvania consumers have left their electric utility and switched to an alternative electric provider, such as Spark Energy, according to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

Of the 1,003,095 consumers that switched to an alternative electric supplier, 817,780 are residential accounts and 185,315 are a business and commercial accounts. In all, 44.3 percent of ratepayers statewide have switched to an alternative electric company.

The figures, from data released by the commission March 30, represent a milestone for electric deregulation in Pennsylvania.

“The market has really only been open for one year and three months, so we think those are some incredible numbers in such a short period time,” Richard Hudson, Pennsylvania state chair for the Retail Energy Supply Association, a Harrisburg-based industry group, told Central Penn Business Journal.

Hudson cited consumer education campaigns by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and a fair market structure as key reasons for the growth in the volume of ratepayers that are leaving their utilities for alternative electric providers.

Sources

Tally of Pa. Customers Switching Electricity Suppliers Surpasses 1M, Central Penn Business Journal, April 4, 2011).