The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved Thursday two partial settlements, one involving PECO Energy Company (PECO) and various other parties and one involving Duquesne Light and other parties.
Both settlements reduce the rate increases requested by the utilities earlier this year and direct the companies to return tax savings to customers.
The PUC approved a net revenue increase of $24.9 million for PECO. The utility requested an $81.9 million increase in its initial filing.
Under the settlement, the average monthly bill for a residential PECO customer using 700 kilowatt-hours per month would increase by 1.2 percent from $102.65 to $103.92, effective Jan. 1, 2019.
The settlement requires PECO to refund $68 million in savings resulting from the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Residential customers will receive a one-time bill credit in January 2019. Larger commercial and industrial customers will receive refunds spread over one year.
The settlement also includes a pilot project to encourage the installation of fast charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) and gather data to explore future rates for direct current fast charger systems.
The commission approved a net revenue increase of $40.5 million for Duquesne Light. The utility initial requested an $81.6 million increase in its initial filing with the PUC.
The average monthly electric bill for a residential customer of Duquesne Light using 600 kilowatt-hours per month would increase by 4.4 percent from $98.15 to $102.51, effective Dec. 29, 2018.
The settlement also requires Duquesne Light to refund $24 million in savings resulting from the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Residential customers will receive a one-time bill credit during the January 2019 billing cycle, based on their distribution charges. The average residential customer bill credit will be $25.61. Larger commercial and industrial customers will receive refunds over a two-month period.
The Duquesne Light settlement also includes an EV pilot program to encourage the deployment of additional charging stations, EV registration incentives, consumer education and development of fast charging stations which Duquesne Light and the Port Authority of Allegheny County will use for electric bus evaluation.