PPL seeks rate hike that would impact its 272,000 Lancaster County customers

PPL Electric Utilities’ residential customers would see their bills rise 6.98% by July 1, 2026, if the company’s request is approved by state regulators.

The proposed increase is in the base rate, or portion of a customer’s bill that pays for the operation and maintenance of the electricity distribution system, not the electricity itself.

If approved, the bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month would increase 6.98%, or about $13, according to PPL. The bill of a commercial customer using 1,000 kWh and 3 KW per month would increase 5.31%, or about $8.60. An industrial customer’s bill for 150,000 kWh hours per month and 500 KW would increase about 2.58%, or about $514.

This first base rate hike since Jan. 1, 2016, would bring PPL a revenue increase of approximately $356 million, which would increase the company’s total annual revenue by about 8.6%. PPL is the main electricity utility in Lancaster County with about 272,000 customers.

“To continue providing our customers with safe and reliable electric service, we need to make important investments in our system. With nearly 47,000 miles of distribution lines, 1 million poles, hundreds of substations, and thousands of pieces of equipment, costs are rising to maintain and upgrade these essential services. We’re requesting a rate adjustment to support these necessary improvements and help ensure power stays on, especially as severe weather becomes more common,” said PPL President Christine Martin in announcing the rate hike request.

The state Public Utility Commission must approve the rate increase and typically suspends such a request for seven months to investigate and determine how much of an increase is warranted. Such an investigation would put this increase in place by July 1, 2026.

PUC investigations can lead to lower than requested increases. For example, a base rate increase request by UGI Utilities totaling $110.4 million a year was scaled back by the PUC to $69.5 million and approved last month. Denver-based UGI has more than 740,000 customers in 46 counties in Pennsylvania, including about 75,000 residential natural gas customers in Lancaster County.