PECO seeks to raise rates again by 12.5% for Philly and suburban electric customers. The governor's office says Shapiro believes the rate case should be withdrawn immediately.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is lashing out at PECO on social media for proposing new rate hikes in the face of record profits.
“Last year PECO raised prices on Pennsylvanians and made an obscene $814 million in profit,” Shapiro wrote on X on Friday.
“They could have used that money to offset people’s costs — instead they passed it onto shareholders,” he continued. “Now they want to jack up prices even more. It’s pure greed, and I’ll do everything I can to stop it.”
In an email, the governor’s office said he “believes PECO should withdraw their rate case immediately. If they do not reconsider, the Governor will use all means at his disposal to prevent PECO from raising rates on hardworking Pennsylvanians.”
It’s unclear what Shapiro can or will do to prevent the rate hikes. In response to a question on whether the utility would withdraw the proposal, PECO spokesperson Candice Womer said in a statement that the company “shares Governor Shapiro’s concerns about affordability and remains focused on keeping customer bills as low as possible while continuing to invest in safe and reliable service.”
“We look forward to continuing to work constructively with the Governor and other stakeholders to balance affordability with the investments needed to serve customers across southeastern Pennsylvania,” Womer said.
PECO’s 2025 net profits, as reported by WHYY News, came after the utility raised electricity rates for customers by 10% in 2025. As a result, net profits rose from $551 million in 2024 to $814 million in 2025, a nearly 50% jump.
Calvin Butler, the president and CEO of PECO’s parent company, Exelon, earned more than $15.6 million in 2025.
The utility is seeking to raise rates again in 2027 by 12.5% for electricity customers in Philadelphia and its suburbs. Suburban natural gas customers could also pay an increase of 11.4%. If approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the increase would raise a typical electricity customer’s bill by $20.08 a month and a typical gas user by $14.52 a month, according to PECO.
PECO sought and received rate increases four times between 2015 and 2025. PECO’s gas division received approvals to raise rates three times between 2020 and 2024.
The rate of return, or return on equity, for investors that PECO is seeking with this new rate hike is 10.95%, which is much higher than the national average, said Marissa Gillett, a senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and a former chair at the Connecticut Public Utility Commission where she advocated for more meaningful public input.
“My take on the governor’s tweet, what caught his eye in the situation was the 10.95% [return on equity] that they’ve embedded in their request,” Gillett said. “That is alarmingly high. That is almost 100 basis points higher than the national average.” The national average was 9.75% in the first quarter of 2025.
Last year PECO raised prices on Pennsylvanians and made an obscene $814 million in profit.
— Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) April 3, 2026
They could have used that money to offset people's costs — instead they passed it onto shareholders.
Now they want to jack up prices even more.
It’s pure greed, and I'll do everything… https://t.co/2kPa3xjfot
Investor-owned utilities like PECO make their profits off of infrastructure spending, so the more they spend, the more money they can make.
“And considering that the level of profit that PECO has been earning over the past couple of years is also in excess of the national average,” Gillett said.
Shapiro is up for reelection this year against Republican Stacey Garrity, a campaign where affordability features prominently.
PECO said in a statement that the company shares “Shapiro’s concerns about affordability” and that it remains “focused on keeping energy bills as low as possible for customers across southeastern Pennsylvania.”
The company said the rate hike is necessary for “maintaining a safe and reliable energy system amid growing demand, more frequent severe weather, and aging infrastructure.”
PECO said it plans to spend $10 billion over five years to “reduce outages, strengthen the grid, protect customers during extreme weather, and modernize the natural gas system. About 90 percent of what PECO earns is reinvested directly back into system reliability, safety, and service quality.”
