Green electricity suppliers in Pennsylvania: what 100% renewable costs

In most areas, a 12-month green plan costs a few dollars a month more than a plain one, and in a few it costs less. Pick your electric company, how green you want the plan, and how much power you use. The tool reads today's plans from PA Power Switch. It sorts out the plans that are easy to compare and shows the cheapest ones.

This is an estimate of the supply part of your bill: the price times your kWh, plus any monthly fee. It leaves out plans whose price depends on your home, starting rates, flat monthly bills and old listings. Your own bill names your utility.

Look at the term as well as the price. A short plan can look cheap, and then your price changes. The tool also shows the cheapest green plan lasting 12 months or longer, so you can compare like with like.

Not sure which company serves you? It is named on your bill. Our town finders for Erie, Reading and York and the Lehigh Valley name it too, and our Pennsylvania guide has a utility finder for other towns.

If you are in your utility's CAP program, its low-income payment plan, PA Power Switch says you cannot buy from a supplier, green or not. Our guide to help paying your electric bill covers what you can do instead.

On Oct. 24, 2026, the cheapest 12-month green plan cost between $1.19 less and $6.72 more a month than the cheapest plain one at 700 kWh, in seven of the eight areas. In UGI's area, with a single green plan, it cost $17.64 more. Here is the count, area by area, next to each price to compare.

Three facts stand out. First, about one plan in five says 100% renewable, 212 of the 944 on the state's list. Second, the extra cost is small in most areas. UGI is the exception, with a single green plan. Third, the very cheapest green plans are short. In seven of the eight areas, the cheapest plain fixed 100% renewable plan lasted only three months.

Only 16 of the 212 are plain fixed plans of 12 months or longer that beat their area's price to compare after fees at 700 kWh. All 16 sit in the Duquesne Light, Met-Ed, PECO and PPL areas. None sat in Penelec, Penn Power, UGI or West Penn.

These counts are a snapshot. The tool above reads today's list. The price-to-compare column updates on its own, but the other columns do not.

A small gap per kWh becomes a few dollars a month. The table turns the gap into dollars.

Compare the premium with the price to compare. If the green plan's price per kWh is under your utility's price, you pay no extra at all, and you buy green too. Fees and term still matter. A short plan under the default price can end at a worse price in a few months.

So what does the extra money buy? Here is what the label means.

"100% renewable" means the seller matched your use with renewable energy certificates. It does not mean wind power runs down a private wire to your house. Electricity from every source mixes on one grid, so sellers use certificates to back the claim.

The EPA explains it this way. A renewable energy certificate is issued when one megawatt-hour of electricity is generated and delivered to the grid from a renewable resource. The certificate carries the green claim, kept separate from the power itself. The EPA adds that RECs are the accepted legal instrument for backing renewable energy claims in the United States.

1. A wind or solar farm makes 1 MWhThe farm puts one megawatt-hour on the grid.
2. A REC is issuedOne certificate stands for that megawatt-hour and its clean attributes.
3. A seller buys the RECThe seller holds it for your plan. It should be used for only one customer.
4. Your plan matches your useThe seller says it matched your kWh with RECs.

The same grid still powers your home, and the same utility sends the bill. What changes is who gets to claim the clean energy. If a plan says 100% renewable, it means the seller has matched your use with certificates. It does not mean your lights run only on wind.

Not all certificates are equal. Green-e is a voluntary program run by the Center for Resource Solutions, a nonprofit. It says its certified credits come from new projects built for the voluntary market, are checked twice a year and are not double-counted. A plan that names Green-e gives you that outside check. A plan with no certification can still be real, so ask.

Every utility and supplier in Pennsylvania must already buy credits for about 18% of what it sells. The rule is the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act, or AEPS, from 2004.

That 18% is a floor everyone already pays for. A plan that says it meets the state standard is not a green plan. A green plan should go beyond it.

Now look at what counts. In the 2025 reporting year, about half of the Tier II credits retired came from waste coal, according to the state's own report. That is a fuel source the law allows, but not one most people picture when they hear "renewable."

Tier I looks greener. Coal mine methane was 34% of the Tier I credits retired, wind 17%, low-impact hydro 12% and out-of-state solar 23%. So even the state's "clean" tier mixes sources, and some are not what you might guess. When you pay extra for a plan, ask what your credits come from.

A seller must be able to prove any green claim it makes, and the source it names must be traceable. An independent auditor checks those sources each year. The rules are in the state code, at 52 Pa. Code section 54.6.

The Federal Trade Commission has a similar guide. It says marketers should qualify renewable energy claims, for instance by naming the source. It also says a seller that sells all its renewable certificates cannot claim to use renewable energy.

If a seller will not tell you where its credits come from, that is your answer. You can file a complaint with the PUC on its complaints page or call 1-800-692-7380.

Ask the seller these seven questions, and keep the answers in writing.

Then compare the plan the usual way. Test it in our offer checker. Look up the seller on our supplier ranking. We have full reviews of two sellers known for green plans, CleanChoice Energy and Inspire Clean Energy.