Peco is starting a $10 million relief fund for customers with overdue bills
The fund will provide low- and middle-income households with $500 grants, at a time when electricity costs are on the rise and AI data centers are demanding more of the power grid.
With electricity costs on the rise, and AI data centers demanding more of the power grid, some local consumers will soon have another way to get relief from high utility bills.
Peco on Wednesday announced the launch of a $10 million customer relief fund for low- and middle-income Philly-area households that have overdue bills.
“We know that customers are struggling,” especially amid the latest heat wave, said David Vahos, Peco’s president and CEO, at a news conference in Norristown on Wednesday. At the same time, “we’ve seen a significant increase in the capacity prices,” which are the wholesale electricity prices that Peco passes to customers without a markup.
The company’s new fund will provide one-time $500 grants to about 17,000 households, company executives said. To be eligible, customers must be in arrears, but not with more than $2,000 due, and their annual household income must fall between 151% and 300% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s between $48,547 and $96,450.
Applications open Monday, Aug. 4, and will be available online at peco.com/relief. The United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey will also help people apply. The grants will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who stopped by the PA CareerLink Montgomery County facility for the announcement, called it a “critically important” measure for residents who are struggling to make ends meet.
“Costs just unfortunately keep going up, whether it’s at the grocery store or at the gas pump or with your utilities, and those costs hit lower-income families and seniors the hardest,” Davis said. “No Pennsylvanian should have to choose between keeping the lights on or paying for their prescriptions or groceries.”
The relief fund is entirely shareholder-funded and is made possible by a $50 million donation from Exelon, Peco’s parent company.
The announcement comes as electricity prices are rising nationwide — and are expected to outpace inflation at least through 2026. Philly residents have seen their monthly electric bills increase by $17 on average this summer, the Washington Post reported Sunday, while Trenton residents’ have risen by about $26.
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From January to June, Peco customers’ bills have increased by about 5.6% on average, according to company data.
Since then, the region has experienced extreme heat, causing air-conditioning units to work harder — even if residents don’t touch the temperature dial. In an interview, Vahos said he recently spoke to a customer whose bill doubled between June and July.
“When it’s this hot, your bills are going to increase significantly, because you’re trying to stay comfortable and safe in your home,” Vahos said.
Increased demand from AI data centers are contributing to rising prices, experts have said.
Soon after taking over as CEO in June, Vahos publicly commended Gov. Josh Shapiro for his efforts to attract data centers to the commonwealth. In a statement, Vahos said Peco is partnering with Amazon Web Services to support a data center campus in Bucks County.
» READ MORE: Amazon will spend $20 billion to build two data centers in Pennsylvania
When it comes to data centers, “we are pleased with the economic development opportunity,” Vahos said Wednesday. “At the same time, we are concerned. We want to make sure Pennsylvania continues to be a state that is generation-rich. Because we’re an exporter of energy today, and data centers will consume that energy in a heartbeat.”
“In five years, if everything out there gets built, we could be in a situation that looks more like neighboring states, [such as New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland], where they have a deficiency of generation and they need to import,” he added. “I don’t want to see Pennsylvania in that kind of model, because it will impact customers from a price perspective.”
Peco provides default electric service to 1.2 million residential customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Additionally, 500,000 customers opt for another supplier through the online marketplace PAPowerSwitch.com. Peco also provides natural gas service to about 548,000 households in the suburbs.