Costs are Up and the Power’s Down: Pennsylvania has a Path Forward.
The Commonwealth’s grid is stumbling under unprecedented strain – it’s time for lawmakers to act
Pennsylvania families are getting hit twice: skyrocketing electric bills and record-breaking power outages. The recent release of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s 2024 Electric Service Reliability Report delivered a sobering wake-up call: 2024 was the worst year for power outages in over 30 years. Our state had 71 widespread outages that lasted at least six hours, and nearly 3 million Pennsylvanians lost power at some point during the year.
When the power goes out, food spoils in the refrigerator. Medical equipment stops working. Businesses shut down. Kids can’t do homework. And the elderly or disabled might be stuck without heat or air conditioning when they need it most.
We’re paying higher electric bills, hoping that the added expense will go toward fixing old power lines and equipment – but the outages keep getting worse. The double-digit rate increases Pennsylvanians are seeing on energy bills aren’t going to fix the problem. Instead, they’re padding profits for existing energy companies, all while data centers drive up demand for energy and our regional transmission operator fails to allow new energy online fast enough.
Most of Pennsylvania’s electricity comes from big power plants, often hundreds of miles away. The energy travels through a network of power lines that get knocked down if a storm hits or a tree falls. When those lines go down, entire neighborhoods can lose power.
The state report shows that only 3 out of 11 electric companies in Pennsylvania could meet basic standards for keeping the lights on. Most failed. And it’s getting worse every year.
The good news is that we don’t have to keep accepting rising bills for unreliable power. There’s a better solution: investing in solar on homes and businesses here in Pennsylvania, combined with battery storage and smart upgrades to our power grid. Instead of depending on distant power plants and vulnerable power lines, we can make electricity where we use it, store it for when we need it, and make sure that when we do need to bring in energy from far away, we’re being smart about it.
Batteries paired with solar panels mean you have power even when the sun isn’t shining. During the day, your solar panels charge the batteries. At night or during storms, the batteries power your home. Some families and businesses with solar and batteries never lose power, even when their neighbors’ lights go out.
We also don’t have to replace every power line to make our system more reliable. “Grid Enhancing Technologies” are smart upgrades that help the existing power lines work better. These include sensors that spot problems before they cause outages, and computer systems that automatically route power around damaged areas.
When many homes and businesses have solar panels and batteries, the whole neighborhood becomes more reliable. If a big power plant goes down, solar-powered homes can blunt the impact and help stabilize the grid.
Every day we wait is another day Pennsylvania families risk losing power when they need it most. The solutions exist, and they can save us money while making our electricity more reliable.
It’s time for Pennsylvania to:
- Make solar easier to install. Cut red tape that makes it hard for families and businesses to put up solar panels and batteries, for instance through authorizing plug in solar.
- Authorize community solar. Not everyone can put solar panels on their roof. Community solar lets people share in local solar projects even if they rent their home or live in an apartment.
- Require utilities to use proven technologies. Electric companies should have to consider smart grid upgrades before asking customers to pay for expensive new power lines.
- Offer incentives for solar and batteries. Help families and businesses to install solar panels and battery storage to make their communities more reliable.
- Support Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). PA must develop a program that allows solar and storage across homes and businesses to talk to one another so that bills and reliance on added power go down. The Public Utility Commission is working on this, but it needs to move faster.
Pennsylvania families deserve electricity that works when we need it, at a price we can afford. Solar power, battery storage, and smart grid technology can give us both.
2024 was a wake-up call, and the power is in our hands – literally. Let’s not wait for things to get even worse before we act. As a first step, let the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission know you want to make solar interconnection faster, fairer, and more transparent by signing today: