Three Key Interventions to Deliver $841 in Electricity Bill Savings in Pennsylvania

Three Key Policies to Deliver $841 in Savings Per Year for the Average Household 

State leaders can reduce power bills through three key policies. This analysis used PPL as its illustrative case utility to demonstrate potential savings throughout Pennsylvania.

1. Meet New Demand From Data Centers With New, Low-Cost Clean Energy

Surging electricity demand from data centers is straining the grid—and not enough supply is coming online to meet it. Resolving this supply-demand imbalance by deploying more low-cost clean energy could save PPL residential customers $714 million per year by 2030, translating to $492 per household.

Tech companies are planning massive new data centers in Pennsylvania and the wider regional grid controlled by PJM Interconnection. The resulting increase in power demand, coupled with supply-side bottlenecks like interconnection queue delays and local permitting hurdles, is collectively driving up energy and capacity prices in the market, which is increasing bills for consumers.

To bring prices back down, state leaders should prioritize increasing supply of clean energy. This can be accomplished by: requiring data centers to self-supply their own clean power through legislation, and speeding up slow approval processes like PJM’s interconnection queue and Pennsylvania’s patchwork municipal permitting to bring more low-cost, clean energy online faster.

2. Limit Monopoly Utility Companies’ Excess Profits

Investor-owned utilities earn a high return for every dollar spent on capital investments like grid infrastructure. These utility returns cost the average household in PPL’s territory $251 per year. Synapse estimates reducing return on equity (ROE) by an illustrative two percentage points could save PPL residential customers $76 million annually by 2030, delivering $58 in yearly savings for the average household. Similar savings are possible for other utilities.

For example, PPL proposed an 11.3 percent ROE in its most recent rate case at the PA Public Utility Commission (PUC) filed in September 2025 (note: on June 4, 2026, the PUC approved a non-unanimous settlement agreement reached by the parties). The initial proposal was higher than the average ROE earned by other utilities nationwide, 9.7 percent. If, for example, ROE were 2 percentage points lower (9.3 percent), households in PPL would save over $200 from 2027 to 2030. This reduction is illustrative—savings would scale up or down linearly if ROE were reduced by more or less.

3. Deploy More Customer-Owned Clean Power and Increase Grid Efficiency

Expanding customer-owned clean energy is among the fastest and most affordable ways to bring new power online and upgrade the grid while reducing costs for everyone. Customer-owned clean energy includes rooftop solar, battery storage, energy efficiency, and demand response technologies like virtual power plants. Similarly, utilities can use grid-enhancing technologies to send more electricity through the existing grid more efficiently without building expensive new power lines. Synapse estimates that by expanding these technologies, state lawmakers could save PPL residential customers $377 million annually by 2030, delivering $291 in yearly savings for the average household.

By enabling more customers to generate and manage their own clean energy, Pennsylvania can increase energy supply and put downward pressure on bills. By decreasing the need for expensive new infrastructure across the whole system, all customers would save on their electric bills. Customer-owned power can be expanded through state legislation that creates a virtual power plant program or otherwise increases incentives or funding for distributed energy resources. Lawmakers can achieve the full savings estimated here if these programs and incentives are not funded from utility bills. Similarly, the PA General Assembly can require utilities to deploy grid-enhancing technologies through legislation.

About the Contributors to this Memo