Press Release

    Harrisburg, Pa. ¾ Customers served by Wellsboro Electric Company (Wellsboro) will receive a system average shopping credit of 3.90 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 1999, under a settlement restructuring plan approved 5-0 today by the Public Utility Commission (PUC).

    Customers will save money if they purchase electricity for less than the shopping credit. Assuming the market price in north-eastern Pennsylvania is 3 cents, the Wellsboro plan will enable customers to reduce their total bills in 1999 by approximately nine percent.

    Wellsboro did not claim any stranded costs in its restructuring order. Stranded costs are those costs incurred under a regulated market which may not be recoverable in a competitive market. The Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act of 1996 allows utilities to collect stranded costs that the PUC finds to be just and reasonable.

    Phase-in will begin on January 1, 1999, for one-third of Wellsboro customers. A second third will have choice beginning January 2, 1999. All customers will have the opportunity to select their generation supplier on January 2, 2000. In a recent separate action, the PUC directed that open enrollment begin July 1, 1998, for customers throughout the Commonwealth to choose their electric generation supplier.

    Wellsboro will maintain its existing programs regarding late payments, terminations and referrals to community organizations. In addition, the utility will meet with representatives of the Dollar Energy Fund to discuss the opportunity for Wellsboro ratepayers to contribute to the program. Wellsboro will also meet with the PUC’s Bureau of Consumer Services to discuss future participation in the Low Income Home Usage Reduction Program.

    Starting in 1999, Wellsboro will unbundle its rates to reflect separate prices for the generation charge, the competitive transition charge, and transmission and distribution charges. While generation will be open to competition, Wellsboro will continue to provide transmission and distribution services to its customers at PUC-regulated rates.

    Wellsboro filed its initial restructuring plan on September 30, 1997. Public input hearings were held in March in Wellsboro. The utility company provides electricity to approximately 6,200 retail customers in Wellsboro and the surrounding area.

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