News

May 9, 2009

State senator accuses PUC of hiding PPL price increases

Times Leader Staff

A state senator has accused the state Public Utility Commission of attempting to hide price increases some PPL Electric Utilities customers will experience, but the PUC calls it an oversight and PPL says the numbers have long been public.

Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northumberland, filed a class-action complaint with the PUC on Monday against itself, alleging that “anonymous sources” there have told her the “expected rate increase when caps expire (on Jan. 1) will be much higher than the company wants to admit” and the PUC attempted to hide that in a recent price update. It’s unknown yet if the commissioners will have to recuse themselves.

The PUC’s price update includes PPL’s estimate of residential rates increasing 30.4 percent, but omits increases that small- and mid-sized businesses can expect. A PUC response to Boscola reports them as 18.9 percent and 36.8 percent, respectively. “We tend to gear our press releases … to the residential consumers and are working to increase our outreach efforts to the other customer classes,” explained PUC spokesperson Jenn Kocher.

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