Price to compare in Pennsylvania: yours now and on Dec. 1

Find your utility in the table. The first price is what your bill uses today. The last column shows the early price for Dec. 1, 2026, where the utility has posted one. Your utility's name is at the top of your bill.

We checked the "now" prices against PA Power Switch on October 20, 2026. Three small utilities are not in the table. On June 1, 2026, the PUC listed Citizens' Electric at 13.215¢, Wellsboro Electric at 12.556¢ and Pike County Light & Power at 13.434¢. Check your bill for the price today. Live in a town with its own electric system, or served by a rural electric co-op? The PUC does not regulate those, so these prices do not apply to you. Ask your provider for its rates.

Pick your utility and type the offer's numbers. The check shows what you would save or lose in a year, at today's price and at the Dec. 1 price.

This is an estimate, not a bill. It assumes the offer's price and your use stay the same. Taxes are already inside both prices for homes, so none are added.

On Dec. 1, 2026, most Pennsylvania utilities reset their price to compare. As of Oct. 20, five had posted early prices. All five are higher than today's, by 2.6% to 3.4%.

That is less than a usual December move. In the last three Decembers, the eight big utilities made 24 changes. Seventeen went up and seven went down. The middle change was about 7%. At today's prices, 7% is about 1 cent per kWh.

These changes are our math from the prices in the PUC's three November notices. The 2026 column compares each early price with today's price.

Nobody can promise which way Dec. 1 will go, or what June 1, 2027 will bring. In 2023, PPL, PECO, Duquesne Light and UGI all cut their prices, by 7.8% to 15.4%. In 2025, seven of the eight raised theirs. So test an offer against both prices. The free check above does that.

The final Dec. 1 prices become public in the fall. The PUC listed all of them in a notice on Nov. 29, 2023, Nov. 25, 2024 and Nov. 24, 2025. State rules also tell a utility to post each new price tariff when it files it with the PUC, and to post the new price within one business day after it starts.

A supplier's headline price is only part of the cost. Turn each offer into one all-in number. Then compare it with your price to compare, today and on Dec. 1.

1. 1
   Add the fee to the price.

   Divide the monthly fee, in dollars, by the kWh you use. Add the answer, in cents, to the price. A $9.95 fee adds about 1 cent at 1,000 kWh and about 2 cents at 500 kWh.

2. 2
   Use your own kWh.

   Your bill shows how much you used. An offer with fees must show an all-in price table for 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh. Read the row closest to your use.

3. 3
   Check both prices to compare.

   Test today's price and the Dec. 1 price. Our check above does both.

4. 4
   Read the term.

   A fixed price stays the same for the whole term. A variable price can change every month.

5. 5
   Ask what happens at the end.

   Many contracts renew at a new price or slide to month to month. Your supplier must warn you 45 to 60 days before the end, and again at least 30 days before.

A small gap is not enough

PA Power Switch says one cent per kWh can mean more than $100 a year. That works both ways. A reset can move your price to compare by about a cent in one day, so a gap of a fraction of a cent can flip. Our rule of thumb is to skip an offer unless its all-in price beats both prices by at least half a cent. That is about $5 a month at 1,000 kWh.

Many offers sit under a price to compare, but not every one is a good deal. On October 20, 2026, about 34% of the offers on PA Power Switch were priced under their utility's price to compare. Of those, 60 were fixed for 12 months or more with no monthly fee and no cancellation fee. The rest had a fee, a short term or a variable price. We leave out our partner's plans from these counts. Our supplier ranking scores the companies that sell them.

In June 2025, the PUC's chairman warned that short-term deals below the price to compare "demand close attention." If you miss the end date, you can land on a month-to-month variable rate.

These examples use made-up offers and real prices to compare. Each one uses 1,000 kWh a month.

Two offers, tested today

Offer 1 looks good. Its 12.69¢ is 0.39 cents under PPL's price. But the $9.95 fee adds almost 1 cent, so the all-in price is 13.685¢. That is $6.06 a month over the price to compare.

Offer 2 has no fee. It is 1.2 cents under Met-Ed's price today, which is $12.01 a month. If Met-Ed's early Dec. 1 price holds, the gap grows to 1.67 cents, or $16.72 a month.

Two real Decembers at PPL

These use PPL's real prices to compare. The offers are made up. We assume 1,000 kWh a month for the next 12 months.

In 2023 the offer was 0.23 cents under the price to compare, so it looked like a win. Then the price to compare fell, and the offer cost about $164 more than doing nothing. In 2024 the offer was 0.46 cents over, so it looked like a loss. Then the price to compare rose twice, and the offer saved about $136. The resets decided both results, not the small gap on signing day.

You have time. Here is a simple plan for the weeks before the reset.

1. Now: find your priceCheck your bill or the table above. Write down your utility and today's price.
2. Early November: test offersRun two or three offers through the check. Use each offer's all-in price, with fees.
3. Late November: see the final priceThe PUC posted its list on Nov. 29, 2023, Nov. 25, 2024 and Nov. 24, 2025. Your utility's website shows it too.
4. Dec. 1: new prices startIf you stay on the price to compare, your price resets. A fixed offer keeps its price.
5. June 1, 2027: the next resetPut it on your calendar and test again.

A switch is quick. PA Power Switch says you can likely change suppliers in about three business days after your utility is told. After you get the written terms, you have three business days to cancel for any reason.

Live in PECO, Met-Ed, Penn Power or West Penn Power territory? Ask your utility about the Standard Offer Program. It sets a fixed price 7% below your price to compare on the day you enroll. That is about 0.8 to 1 cent below at today's prices. It lasts one year, and you can cancel any time with no fee. PA Power Switch says it is not always available. Enrolling before Dec. 1 sets the price from today's number, and enrolling after sets it from the Dec. 1 number. That is the diference. In Met-Ed, the early numbers give about 12.97¢ before Dec. 1 and about 13.41¢ after.

Set two reminders. One is for 60 days before any contract ends. The other is for June 1, 2027.

Your bill has two big parts. Supply is the power itself. Delivery is the wires, poles and meter. You can shop only the supply part.

State rules say a customer who does not shop gets one default price, shown as its own line on the bill. It covers the power and the cost of moving it across the grid. The PUC says this supply price is about 40% to 60% of a typical bill.

The price may be written in cents, such as 12.5¢, or in dollars, such as $0.125. Your utility also posts it on its website.

If you already have a supplier, its price replaces the price to compare on the supply line. Your utility's price is still useful, because it is what you would pay if you went back. Households in the Customer Assistance Program (CAP) cannot shop for a supplier. If that is you, see our guide to help with a bill.

Your utility does not make power. It buys it, and it passes the cost on through the price to compare. The PUC audits and reviews those costs every year. Three things shape the price.

Here is how that looks for FirstEnergy's four utilities. These are FirstEnergy's own sample sheets for Dec. 1, 2026, so the final numbers can differ.

Look at the catch-up row. For Met-Ed, 0.831¢ of the 14.422¢ pays back money the utility under-collected before. That part is not a new market move. Met-Ed's auction price also blends four rounds of auctions, held from November 2024 to April 2026.

Why have prices climbed in recent years? The PUC pointed to higher natural gas prices and higher "capacity" costs. Capacity costs are payments that keep power plants ready for the busiest days. In May 2026 the PUC added that these prices "are based on wholesale market rates."