Residents Energy reviews: 43/100 and a daily fee

Residents Energy adds a daily service fee to its price per kWh. A kWh, or kilowatt hour, is the unit your power bill counts. The sheet says the fee is up to $0.499 a day on standard plans and up to $0.999 on green plans. Use the counter to see what it adds to your bill.

Rates, fees and the 6-month term come from Residents' October 2026 sheet, good for sign-ups through October 31. The sheet says "up to," so type the fee from your own paper. Your utility's delivery charges and sales tax are not in the total. This is an estimate, not a bill.

The fee is the same if you use a little power or a lot. So it weighs more on a small home. This table turns the fee into cents per kWh and adds it to the 6-month fixed price.

The sheet price is 16.75¢ in PPL's area and 17.02¢ in PECO's. The average Residents home in PA used about 643 kWh a month in 2025, so at that use the top fee comes to 2.36¢ per kWh.

The state's contract summary has a row called "Generation price at various usage levels." It shows the price at 500, 1,000 and 2,000 kWh. PA Power Switch says the row is required when fees come on top of the per kWh price. Look for it on your paper.

We checked PA Power Switch, the state's own shopping site, on October 19, 2026. It showed no Residents Energy electric plan in any of the eight utility areas we looked at. So you cannot compare Residents there. Its prices come from one place: the sheet it posts on its own rates page.

The sheet is for new sign-ups from October 1 to October 31, 2026. Its heading reads "New residential service F2F channels." F2F usually means face to face. We found no other PA price list on the site, so the sheet may not cover every way to sign up.

Here are its prices in cents per kWh, before the daily fee. The "price to compare" column is the one printed on the sheet, dated September 24, 2026.

The sheet has seven utility areas and no row for UGI. The only fixed term is 6 billing cycles. There is no 12-month plan. The utility pages show each price to compare in full: PPL, PECO, Duquesne Light and FirstEnergy's four PA utilities.

The low variable price lasts one bill

The "variable" columns are the teaser. The sheet says that price "will apply to the first monthly billing cycle only." After that, "RE's standard variable rates will apply," and the sheet does not list them. It also says: "There is no cap on the rate."

Add the top fee to the teaser price and you still land above the price to compare in every area, at 110% to 113% of it.

Add the fee to the 6-month fixed price

Now add the top fee to the fixed price at 1,000 kWh. This chart shows how far each area lands above its price to compare. A tie would be 100%.

What its home customers paid

The federal EIA collects yearly sales from every power seller. It lists what Residents billed its PA home customers in total, so we can work out an average.

These averages mix every plan and every month. They are not a price you can get today. They do show a company that grew by almost half in one year.

Two papers tell you the terms: a one-page contract summary and a longer disclosure statement. The state requires both. We read the PA papers that Residents posts online, dated 2020, and its October 2026 price sheet. They do not agree on everything.

The 2020 variable paper is open ended. It says "there is no limit on how much the price may change from one billing cycle to the next." It also says you will not hear about a change "until you receive the bill with that rate."

It promises that the past 24 months of rates are posted on the company's site. When we looked on October 16, 2026, its rates menu listed variable rates for Massachusetts and Illinois only. We found no PA history.

Residents Energy, LLC is owned by Genie Energy Ltd., a public company that trades on the New York Stock Exchange as GNE. Residents' own rates page calls itself "a wholly owned subsidiary of Genie Energy, Ltd."

Genie's 2025 annual report was audited by CBIZ CPAs P.C. That earns Residents credit for audited financials in our score.

Check the name on your paper. The sheet's fine print says your supply starts when the utility "approves your IDT Energy enrollment." IDT Energy is a sister brand. Your contract should name Residents Energy, LLC, which holds PA license A-2014-2433184. If it names another company, ask why before you sign.

Yes, it is a licensed supplier. The PUC approved Residents Energy, LLC to sell electricity in Pennsylvania on December 18, 2014. The PUC's file on the license also shows a continuous bond dated September 16, 2026.

Legit and cheap are two different things. A license is the state's permission to sell. It is not a review of the price. Our score is low on price (0 of 20 points), contract fairness (8 of 20) and complaints (10 of 25). You can confirm any supplier's license with the PUC at 1-800-692-7380.

The PUC counts residential complaints about each supplier in its yearly UCARE report. The 2024 report lists 27 that named Residents Energy. In 22 it was the main company. In 5 it was a second company in the complaint. The count includes payment-plan requests.

Big companies draw more complaints, so we divide by size. The federal EIA says Residents had 10,067 home customers in Pennsylvania in 2024. Divide 27 by 10,067 and you get 26.82 complaints per 10,000 homes. The division is our math.

The PUC warns that a high count "isn't necessarily indicative of a non-compliance issue." A count is not a finding of wrongdoing. Our score treats it as one signal of six.

One Pennsylvania penalty, in 2018

A Duquesne Light customer filed a complaint in September 2015. She said a door-to-door agent switched her to Residents without her approval. The agent worked for a sales company that Residents had hired. The PUC's order calls it an alleged "slamming" case. Slamming means switching a customer's supplier without permission. Her service ran with Residents for 17 days, from September 25 to October 11, 2015.

Residents and the PUC's enforcement bureau settled the case. Residents paid a $6,000 civil penalty, refunded the 17 days of supply charges and filed quarterly complaint reports for 12 months. The Commission approved the deal in an order dated July 12, 2018 (docket M-2017-2511372).

The order says the agent was removed and could not be rehired. It says the allegations "appear to have involved a one-time incident by a rogue agent," yet "involve conduct of a serious nature." The settlement says it is not an admission of any fact or fault.

Other states: reported, not scored

Our score counts PA actions only. These are listed for context, with their sources. An allegation is not a finding.

1. 2021Connecticut. The state regulator's enforcement staff asked for $1.5 million in penalties and a license suspension over alleged door-to-door marketing. Genie reports a settlement: Residents paid $0.3 million and agreed to leave the state for 36 months.
2. Aug 25, 2022Massachusetts. The state regulator settled with Residents over a failure to follow a town's door-to-door permit rule. Residents made a $33,000 charitable donation.
3. Sept 29, 2023Illinois. The Attorney General sued Residents in Cook County. The suit alleges violations of the state's Consumer Fraud Act and Telephone Solicitations Act and asks for penalties of $50,000 per violation. Residents denies it. Genie's report for June 30, 2026 still lists the case as open.

Three of the four matters above involve door-to-door sales. Many suppliers sell this way, and most agents follow the rules. These are the PUC's rules, so you know what to expect.

1. 1
   Ask for the badge.

   An agent must wear an ID badge. It shows the supplier's name and logo, the agent's photo and full name, and a customer-service phone number.

2. 2
   Listen for three things.

   The agent must give a name, name the supplier, and say why they came. The agent must also say they do not work for your utility.

3. 3
   Know what they may not say.

   Agents may not claim to work for your utility or the government. They may not wear or carry items that suggest it.

4. 4
   Keep your bill to yourself.

   The PUC says you do not need to hand a sales agent your bill or account number unless you want an offer. You do not have to decide on the spot.

5. 5
   Say no, and they must leave.

   Agents must leave when you ask. They must honor a request not to be visited again, and the supplier must take you off its list within two business days.

6. 6
   If you sign, get the papers.

   You should get a copy of everything you sign, the full disclosure statement and a short contract summary. The agent must remind you of your 3 business days to cancel.

Suppliers must also run criminal background checks on door-to-door agents. To check a license or report a pushy agent, call the PUC at 1-800-692-7380.

1. 1
   Find your contract summary.

   It says whether a cancel fee applies, how long the term runs and what happens at the end.

2. 2
   Use your 3 days.

   If you signed in the last 3 business days, you can rescind. Residents' paper lists PO Box 400, Jamestown, NY 14702, phone 1-888-828-7374 and contactus@residentsenergy.com. Put it in writing and keep a copy.

3. 3
   After that, do the math.

   On a fixed plan, the sheet shows $10 for each billing cycle left, so $60 at most. A variable plan has no cancel fee. Weigh that against the daily fee you would keep paying. The counter above does the sum.

4. 4
   Switch back or switch away.

   Ask your utility to return you to default service. PA Power Switch says switching back "comes with no cost." Or pick another supplier on PA Power Switch.

5. 5
   Call Residents and write it down.

   Its number is 1-888-828-7374. Note the date, the time and the name of the person you reach. Its pages give two sets of hours, so try both.

6. 6
   Still stuck? File with the PUC.

   The PUC says to contact the company first. Then start at puc.pa.gov/complaints or call 1-800-692-7380. You must keep paying your current bills while the PUC reviews a complaint.

Residents Energy scores 43 out of 100. Each of six parts has a fixed number of points. Residents lost 57 points: 20 on price, 15 on complaints, 12 on contract fairness, 4 on fines, 4 on time in business and 2 on its BBB grade. Every number comes from a public record or the company's own paper. Read how we score for the method.

Here is how Residents lines up with four other PA supliers that we score the same way. Open any review in the first column.

Residents has no 12-month plan, so its price figure uses the 6-month fixed plan with the top daily fee. The other four use their simplest 12-month fixed plan. All five use the prices to compare in PPL's and PECO's areas on October 16, 2026. To see every supplier, read PA electric suppliers, scored. For the state's overview, start at Pennsylvania.