State law requires PPL Electric Utilities, which does not own power plants and does not generate electricity, to buy electricity supply from the competitive market for its customers who do not select alternative suppliers. The company must obtain electricity supply through a combination of short-term, long-term and spot-market purchases and pass the costs through to customers without profit.
The company awarded 14-month, full-requirements contracts for about 17% of the electricity needed from January 1, 2011, to February 29, 2012. The power price in these purchases, including state taxes and other charges, was $74.82 per MWh for residential customers and $76.99 per MWh for small and mid-sized businesses.
This was the fourth of 14 planned power purchases for 2011, 2012 and half of 2013. In this round of purchases, 21 companies competed for supply contracts.
Also in this round, the company purchased two 25MW blocks of electricity supply at an average price of $46.59 per MWh to serve residential customers from January 1, 2011, to February 29, 2012. The price for these supply blocks is for energy only and does not include capacity and other charges, which the company will purchase separately from the regional PJM Interconnection.
PPL Electric Utilities provides electric delivery service to approximately 1.4 million customers in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania.
