PECO is offering $500 grants to help customers pay off overdue bills

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PECO customers struggling to pay their electricity bills will have another source of assistance starting in August.

The utility announced the launch of a new customer assistance fund Wednesday. It will be funded with a one-time donation of $10 million from Exelon, the utility’s parent company, and it will be administered by the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey.

The announcement comes as PECO customers’ electricity bills continue to rise, due in part to the regional grid operator’s soaring costs to ensure there will be enough electricity in the future as demand surges and suppliers struggle to keep up.

“We realize customers are bearing the brunt of increasing energy costs as demand rises while supply is limited,” PECO wrote on its website. “Although PECO and Exelon do not control energy supply costs, the company is committed to advocating for customers and working to find solutions with those who do control those costs.”

$500 grants available August through December

The new program will offer one-time, $500 grants to qualifying households. The grants will show up as credits on customers’ accounts.

The program will run from Aug. 4 to Dec. 31, or until funds run out, PECO said.

Customers must owe overdue bills in order to qualify.

Applying for or receiving a grant through the new program will not necessarily prevent a shutoff or guarantee reconnection if it does not cover a customer’s full overdue balance, PECO said.

Higher income qualifications

Existing programs to help PECO customers afford their bills include the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance program, which provides cash grants to help cover winter heating bills, and PECO’s Customer Assistance Program, which caps bills at a portion of a customer’s income. To qualify for these programs, a household’s income cannot exceed 150% of the annual Federal Poverty Level, which in 2025 is $23,475 annually for an individual or $48,225 for a family of four.

The new program is geared toward limited- and middle-income customers who don’t qualify for existing programs. It’s available to households earning between 151% and 300% the federal poverty level, or between $48,547 and $96,450 annually for a family of four.

To qualify for the new program, a household cannot have a past-due balance of more than $2,000, unless the grant would bring it down below $2,000, PECO said. Applicants must be current PECO residential electric or natural gas customers.

Beyond these assistance programs, PECO customers can also negotiate payment arrangements, budget billing — which spreads a household’s energy costs evenly over the year — and due date extensions.

How to apply

An application for the new assistance program will be available online starting Aug. 4, PECO said.  

Applications will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, the company said. Applicants will need to provide proof of income.

Electric bills are climbing

At the beginning of this year, PECO electric bills rose 10%, or roughly $13 for the typical residential customer, after the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved the utility’s request to raise rates.

Then, the average residential PECO customer’s bill went up an additional roughly $8 starting June 1. This was a result of the regional grid operator PJM Interconnection’s increased costs for paying power producers to guarantee they’ll provide enough electricity in the future, known as capacity costs, and higher costs of the power itself.

The higher capacity costs will drive PECO customer bills up 10% over two years, starting in June 2025. An additional increase of 1.5% to 5% is expected to kick in next June, as a result of the PJM capacity auction that closed at record-high prices earlier this month.

An issue of inequity in Philly

Research has shown that many low-income Philadelphians spend large portions of their incomes on energy bills, what’s called high or severe energy burdens. This affects their ability to afford other essentials, like medication, food or transportation.

A quarter of low-income households in Philadelphia spend at least 16% of their income on energy bills, according to an analysis from the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, using data from 2021.

The burden of expensive energy bills does not hit all Philadelphians equally. The analysis found that Black and Hispanic households spend a bigger portion of their income on energy bills than households overall.