Each of FirstEnergy’s Pennsylvania four utilities — Met-Ed, Penelec, Penn Power and West Penn Power — recently filed new distribution rate cases, just one year after their previous rate cases concluded. Under the four proposals, which total $439 million across all four utilities, the monthly bill for a typical residential customer would rise in the range of $10.89 to $23.61, or about 9.64% to 17.1%, varying by individual utility.

Significantly, the four utilities have requested steep increases in fixed charges for residential and small business customers, as well as higher demand charges for most customers who currently pay demand charges. The proposed increases include:

• For Met-Ed, the monthly customer charge would rise by 70% for residential customers, and by 39% for small business customers.
• For Penelec, the monthly customer charge would rise by 71% for residential customers, and by 60% for small business customers.
• For Penn Power, the monthly customer charge would rise by 24% for residential customers, and by 44% for small business customers.
• For West Penn Power, the monthly customer charge would rise by 141% for residential customers, and by 43% for small business customers.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted last week to investigate the four distribution rate increase requests.