Rate-case process
The PA PUC sets utility distribution rates through public rate cases.
An investor-owned electric or natural-gas utility files the costs it wants customers to pay and the return it seeks to earn. Commission staff, consumer advocates, and other parties test that filing. The Commission then decides the revenue requirement, rate base, allowed return, and effective rates in a final order. Alternative rate mechanisms are permitted, but they still require Commission approval.
Read the official framework ↗Wholesale power market
Form EIA-861 2024 identifies this utility jurisdiction with PJM; the date records the dataset year, not the original membership start.
Market coverage source ↗State rules
Full base-rate reviews set the broad revenue and return framework. Recurring riders, clauses, and reconciliations can change narrower charges between those reviews. These are governing patterns, not filing-date forecasts.
Electric and gas service
Full base-rate review
Electric and gas · Investor-owned electric and natural-gas utilities
No fixed recurring interval
A utility initiates a general rate increase by filing a new tariff. It cannot file another general increase for the same service until the prior request is decided or its maximum suspension period expires.
Rate period: Case-specific; Pennsylvania law sets the filing and decision clock rather than a standard single-year or multi-year plan.
Governing rule ↗Between full reviews
Natural gas
Purchased gas cost recovery
Annual rate · quarterly reconciliation
Large gas distributors file an annual gas-cost tariff and quarterly recalculations. Material differences can change the tariff between annual proceedings, with over- and under-collections reconciled.
Governing source ↗Electric and gas
Distribution System Improvement Charge
Quarterly updates · annual reconciliation
An approved DSIC can recover eligible distribution investment between base-rate cases. The formula is updated quarterly and reconciled annually, subject to the utility's approved long-term infrastructure plan.
Governing source ↗Current activity