Pa. utilities say they will meet summer's heavy demand. They are introducing conservation programs nonetheless. At a Public Utility Commission meeting on summer energy reliability, state regulators said the conservation programs could help prevent power shortages and extreme price spikes similar to those that have rocked California's electricity market. In the last few months, many electricity customers who switched to alternative energy suppliers have received notices that they will be charged higher rates than if they had chosen their incumbent utility company as a supplier.
Markets go up, and markets go down. . . .
I'd state unequivocally that there isn't any crisis. All electric utilities serving the state, including Peco Energy Co. in the Philadelphia region, have implemented, or plan to implement, programs that reward large, industrial customers for curtailing power use during peak periods. The wholesale price of power is directly tied to demand. By some estimates, a 1 percent reduction in demand results in a 10 percent reduction in the wholesale price of energy. Almost all of the heavy power users have automated, radio-signal electricity meters that allow fast data retrieval for utilities.