Increasing Energy Prices? Peco offers a solution.

May 12, 2009

in expenses

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If you are like me you rarely look at the inserts included with most of your bills, but for some reason I took note of the insert that Peco recently sent us with our most recent statement.

The letter states that energy prices will be increasing in 2011 due to the end of rate caps, and they are offering a solution to help ease the transition. The program is called “Early Phase-In” and more detailed info can be found on Peco’s site.

Here are the key parts of the letter/ad they sent:

Earn 6% interest from Peco to help you prepare
We estimate the increase could be up to 20 percent for PECO’s residential, small and large business customers.

With the Early Phase-In program, you can choose to spread out any increase by making advance payments in 2009 and 2010. PECO will pay you 6 percent interest on your payments. Your advance payments, plus the 6 percent interest paid by PECO, will be applied to your account beginning January 2011 to help you offset any higher prices. (bolding theirs)

SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW

  • It is voluntary-you do not have to enroll in the program.
  • If you decide to leave the program, you can do so at any time and receive a full credit, with interest.

It seems like an interesting program, and the main draw is that they will pay you 6% interest. It amounts to a small amount each month from your pocket, but in the long run may be worth it.

I have yet to run the numbers based on our energy usage, but it’s unlikely it will make sense for us. With our current plan we will be completely debt free except for our mortgage by 2011, so paying 20% more won’t effect our bottom line as much. Also, we intend to continue to make improvements to our house so we can use less energy, and I suspect that within 2 years we would be spending LESS on energy than we are now even with increased costs. Of course there is speculation that rate caps will continue past 2011, so that rates won’t increase as this letter suggests.

Are you a PECO customer? Will you use this program?Does your energy company offer a similar program?

Kelly

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About Kelly


Kelly Whalen is the founder of The Centsible Life, a blog where motherhood and money meet. Her goal is to help readers live well on less. Kelly is a mom to 4, and loves that she can stay at home with her kids, and still pursue her passions for writing, personal finance, and social media. You can often find her on twitter and Facebook talking money and motherhood.

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  • Kelly

    I haven’t seen any info on their financials, but it did say on their site that they will be buying the energy for 2011 and beyond starting this year, so that may be why they want the cash now.

  • Kelly

    I haven’t seen any info on their financials, but it did say on their site that they will be buying the energy for 2011 and beyond starting this year, so that may be why they want the cash now.

  • http://steadfastfinances.com Matt_SF

    Seems like PECO is trying to raise cash. Are they in some type of financial distress? Maybe trying to pay down debt?

  • http://steadfastfinances.com Matt SF

    Seems like PECO is trying to raise cash. Are they in some type of financial distress? Maybe trying to pay down debt?

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