May 22, 2026
Jon Tuleya/PhillyVoice
The electric bill for the typical PECO customer will increase by about $5 per month beginning in June due to higher supply costs, the utility company says.
Some PECO customers can expect to see higher bills beginning June 1 due to higher electric supply prices set by PJM Interconnection, the regional grid manager.
PECO customers who receive default supply, rather than purchasing their energy from a supplier, will be impacted, the utility company said Friday.
The electric price to compare — the rate charged for supplied electricity — is increasing to 11.76 cents per kilowatt-hour. The bill of a typical residential customer that uses 700 kilowatts per hour of energy will increase by $4.94 per month — a 3.1% increase, PECO said.
Natural gas customers will see an average monthly increase of around $0.67, or 0.52%, because the price to compare for natural gas also is rising, PECO said.
These increases apply to the supply portion of PECO bills. The supply portion represents the cost of the energy used by a customer. PECO passes the supply costs onto customers without markup, it said.
The higher energy supply costs are a result of increased energy demand and new energy supply not coming online at a pace fast enough to meet that demand, PECO said.
Doug Oliver, senior vice president of Governmental, Regulatory and External Affairs for PECO, said the increases show the energy market requires new sources of power generation to keep up with rising demand.
"We know customers depend on us every day and we recognize the responsibility we have to deliver reliable energy while working to maintain affordability," Oliver said in a statement. "However, we cannot solve this challenge alone. Generators, policymakers and industry leaders must act with urgency to address the supply shortfall and ensure customers have access to reliable, affordable energy in the years ahead."
PECO offers assistance programs for customers who fall behind on their payments.
PECO purchases its energy through PJM, the largest grid manager in the country. PJM covers portions of 13 states in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, including all of Pennsylvania.
PJM sets electric supply prices through its capacity auctions, during which it plans its infrastructure needs and how much it will need to pay power generators to meet demand.
Last July, PJM released the results from its auction for the 2026-27 delivery year, which runs from June 1, 2026 to May 31, 2027. They showed record high procurement prices. PJM warned of a "tightening supply-demand balance" in the energy marketplace, driven largely by the expansion of data centers.
Results for the 2027-28 delivery year capacity auction were released in December. PJM reached the maximum price for its entire coverage area, but still came just below its reliability requirement.
"This auction leaves no doubt that data centers' demand for electricity continues to far outstrip new supply," Stu Bresler, executive vice president of PJM, said in a statement at the time. "The solution will require concerted action involving PJM, its stakeholders, state and federal partners and the data center industry itself."
