The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is in the process of considering various changes to the retail electricity markets to make “improvements to ensure that a properly functioning and workable competitive retail electricity market exists in the state.” One major issue that the PUC is examining is the fact that there are no utility territories in which over half of retail customers are being served by a competitive supplier. It is believed that this fact alone is behind a lack of investment in the Pennsylvania retail electricity market by competitive retailers.
In order to increase competition in the Pennsylvania retail electricity market, the PUC is considering a variety of ideas, including moving to a market structure that will change the default supplier function, currently filled by the utility, to a newly designated competitive supplier. Also on the table is a proposal to change the way new customers initiate service from automatically enrolling them with the default supplier to forcing them to choose a supplier on their own. The PUC is also looking to engage in a robust customer education program to help explain the various options that are available to customers.