A representative from her supplier, Palmco Power PA L.L.C., did not return a phone call about Peterson's bill. But its customer-service department, in an unsigned e-mail, blamed an "unusual" wholesale price spike for the increase.
"Thankfully, however, shortly after the wholesale price increase, wholesale prices dropped, and our price billed to our customers dropped accordingly," it said.
In Pennsylvania's buyer-beware world of deregulated utilities, Peterson can't do much but switch to another supplier. Her agreement, like most with variable rates, does not carry an early cancellation fee.
According to the state Public Utility Commission, a supplier can bill a variable-rate customer at whatever price it believes the market will bear, even if the customer originally thought he or she was getting a discount.
A company also can offer different rates to different customers. The variable rate that is on a customer's bill does not have to be the same as the initial price posted on the PUC's website, http://PAPowerSwitch.com.
"A supplier could have one rate for PowerSwitch . . . while offering a different rate door-to-door . . . yet a different rate for enrolling by mail," Denise McCracken, the PUC's spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. "They could offer me one rate . . . my neighbor a different rate (as long as they are not discriminating on the basis of race, gender, etc. of course)."
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where dozens of electrical suppliers are competing, customers accustomed to a lifetime of regulated utility prices now face a dizzying array of choices - fixed rates, variable rates, and "green" rates from renewable-power generators. Next year, Peco customers will begin seeing rates that vary hourly, according to the market.
