December 27, 2018
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
In this file photo from January 2018, a woman in Center City Philadelphia is dressed for cold weather on a day that reached a high temperature only in the teens.
With high winter heating bills right around the corner, PECO customers can bank on a little bit of relief in January.
The electricity and natural gas provider announced this week that it will apply a one-time tax credit next month as a result of savings from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which the federal government passed last December.
The one-time credit will amount to about $35 off customers' January bills.
PECO noted that the credit will effectively offset the rate increase request that recently was approved by the Pennsylvania Utility Commission. The utility had initially requested a net revenue increase of $81.9 million but ultimately was granted an increase of $24.9 million.
In total, the refund amounts to about $68 million in savings PECO generated from the federal tax bill.
For a typical residential customer using 700 kWh per month, monthly bills will be increasing by about $1 starting in 2019.
The rate changes are approved to provide funding for PECO's electric delivery system and investments in new technologies.
