Fifteen months after receiving a nearly 12 percent rate increase for electricity rates and a 12.5 percent increase for natural gas from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, PECO Energy has filed for an additional 12 percent increase in electric rates and another 11.4 percent increase in natural gas rates.
If approved, the newly proposed rates would take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.
“Families would pay, on average, an additional $20.08 a month for electricity and $14.52 a month for natural gas if the plan is accepted,” according to PA House Democrats opposed to the increase.
PECO provides power to 1.7 million electric customers and more than 553,000 natural gas customers.
In a press release issued Monday, PECO wrote, “the requests seek funding for the company’s long-term investment in its local electric and natural gas infrastructure and to expand support programs and advance the services.”
Those programs and services include “enable EV adoption, solar, and other distributed energy resource interconnection, and to deliver the level of service customers expect while also preparing the grid to support growth from large load users, including data centers,” according to the press release.
However, when asked how much of the increase is driven by projected data center power needs, Candice Womer, communications manager for PECO, seemed to contradict the press release when she replied to MediaNews Group that the rate hike “proposal for 2027 would be the same with or without the expected addition of data centers.”
The rate increase comes at a time when concerns about data centers — and how their significant electricity needs might affect rates for existing customers — are making their way into nearly every level of local and state government.
The request also comes as the utility reached the end of its contract with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
One day after PECO announced its rate request, the IBEW Local 614 announced it had filed charges against the company with the U.S. Labor Relations Board, accusing PECO of withholding information about members’ health and pension benefits while contract negotiations are taking place.
Local 614 represents more than 1,600 PECO workers, who are the linemen, gas technicians, mechanics, call center workers, and back office workers who maintain southeastern Pennsylvania’s electrical and natural gas utility system. According to a press release from the union, when the current contract expired at 12 a.m. Tuesday, it represented the first time since the workers unionized 20 years ago that they had worked without a contract.
No strike has been authorized yet, but the option remains on the table, union leaders said.
In the meantime, there is strong pushback on the rate hike request from area legislators.
“While residents of Pennsylvania are concerned over grocery costs, finding affordable healthcare and the rising price to fill their gas tanks, these proposed increases are unacceptable,” reads a joint statement signed by all 11 members of the Montgomery County delegation to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. “Many residents are already stretched thin from prior increases.”
Impacts from tariffs, the war in Iran and “poor forecasting of energy capacity futures should not lead to utilities like PECO passing those costs directly on to our residents. It’s time to push back,” the statement reads.
“House Bill 1834 passed in the Pennsylvania House last week. If enacted, it will hold data centers responsible to pay for their own electricity,” the statement reads. “There must be no tolerance for the inflation of bottom lines by PECO while Pennsylvanians are caught in the middle of federal situations and corporate problems we didn’t create.”
Similarly, six Bucks County House members issued a joint statement reading, in part, “Pennsylvanians across the state are already dealing with higher PECO costs due in part to the construction of AI data centers that are sapping energy from the electric grid but are currently not compensating consumers.”
“Working-class and middle-class families are already underwater,” the release quoted state Rep. Tina Davis, D-141st Dist., as saying. “If PECO thinks we are going to let them do this without a fight, they’ve got another thing coming.”
The five Bucks County state representatives have started an online petition to push back against PECO’s proposal. Residents can find it at https://www.pahouse.com/Petition/?id=1891.
They also included a link — https://www.puc.pa.gov/complaints/formal-complaints/ — for those who would like to make a formal complaint to the PUC.
PECO is “making record profits, and at the same time asking working families to pay more, all while gearing up to serve massive, energy-hungry data centers that will put serious strain on the grid,” state Sen. Katie Muth, D-44th Dist., wrote in a post on her Facebook page. “Working people should not be subsidizing billion-dollar upgrades for big tech while struggling to keep up with rising utility costs.”
“Families across Bucks County are facing a real cost-of-living crisis, made worse by skyrocketing gas prices; PECO’s proposed rate increase is simply out of touch with that reality,” state Sen. Steve Santasiero, D-10th Dist., said in a statement.
The proposed investments will enable PECO to further improve service reliability, increase electric grid resiliency, and reduce the impacts of severe weather, modernize aging natural gas infrastructure, expand programs to support customers who may be struggling financially, and help customers embrace cleaner and more efficient energy options, according to the utility press release..
Among the electrical infrastructure improvements PECO has undertaken is a 67MW power line to stretch over the Schuylkill River from East Coventry to Limerick to, among other things, provide power to the proposed 1.4 million-square-foot data center proposed for 192 across from the outlets in Limerick.
“The customer,” which PECO did not name in its filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, is paying for the cost of that project.
PECO’s previous rate hike, which kicked in at the beginning of 2025, resulted in record profits. Net income shot up 47.7 percent to $814 million in 2025 over the previous year, according to earnings reports by its parent company, Exelon, WHYY reported, which also reported that Exelon President and CEO Calvin Butler earned more than $15.6 million in 2025.
Historically, the PUC often approves rate hikes lower than those sought by utilities.
In the PUC rate hike settlement in 2024, the PUC reduced by 23.7 percent the revenue increase being sought by the utility. It also cut a proposed 36 percent increase in the monthly distribution customer charge to 7.1 percent.
The 2024 settlement also included a number of conditions and tasks PECO had to meet before another hike request could be made, including a prohibition from filing for another rate hike before March 16, 2026.
Womer told MediaNews Group that all of those conditions, including an expansion of bill savings programs for low-income families, have been met.
