Editorial: Pa. Energy Use

Pennsylvania lawmakers this week flipped the switch on the state's growing demand for electricity, approving several impressive conservation measures that should allow utility customers to dial down higher electricity bills over the next few years.

It may not be enough to hold rates, given expected rate shocks starting in 2010 with the expiration of rate caps under deregulation. But at least electricity consumers now have more hope that they'll be able to trim their own power usage.

So-called smart meters, which enable customers to track electricity use during high- and low-cost periods, will be phased in over a 15-year period, with the costs shared by all utility customers. That's preferable to earlier proposals that made the meter installations optional for existing homes and businesses.

Under legislation approved by the state House and Senate and supported by Gov. Rendell, utilities are mandated to buy power as cheaply as possible. On conservation, they're required to help customers limit growth in electricity use within three years.

By mid-2013, electricity demand has to be reduced by 3 percent over expected growth in the intervening years, and costly peak demand has to drop by 4.5 percent.

It's also important that state utility regulators will have the muscle to lean on and even penalize utilities that don't meet the goals for energy use.

Lawmakers and Rendell still need to craft a plan to phase in higher rate hikes when the caps come off. But the conservation measures enacted this week - first proposed in the Democrat-controlled House, then embraced by Republican leaders in the Senate - are good news for consumers, as well as the environment.

With energy use, it's good to be less powerful.