574,000 confirmed low-income Pennsylvanians eligible for assistance are not enrolled
Pennsylvania's Customer Assistance Programs cap bills at a percentage of income for eligible households. But enrollment rates vary dramatically across utilities — from 83.7% at PECO Electric to 23.4% at UGI Gas. The customers not enrolled are the ones accumulating arrearages and facing disconnection.
Electric utilities: confirmed LI vs. enrolled
Gas utilities: confirmed LI vs. enrolled
574,193
Confirmed low-income customers across electric and gas utilities who are eligible for CAP but not enrolled. This is the known gap — the actual gap is larger.
1.33M
Estimated total low-income electric customers in PA. Only 606,097 have been confirmed by their utilities — the system hasn't identified half its eligible population.
34.6%
PPL's CAP enrollment rate — the lowest among electric utilities. PPL has 130,411 confirmed low-income customers not enrolled, the largest absolute gap in the state.
The enrollment gap is not a failure of program design — it is a failure of program reach. Utilities with active community-based enrollment partnerships (PECO: 30 CBO sites) achieve enrollment above 75%. Utilities relying on customer-initiated enrollment consistently fall below 40%.
PA PUC Bureau of Consumer Services, 2022 Universal Service Report. PECO expanded its CBO enrollment network from 23 to 30 sites; its enrollment rate leads the state at 83.7% (electric) and 77.1% (gas).
Sources: All enrollment data — PA PUC Bureau of Consumer Services, Universal Service Programs & Collections Performance Report, 2022 (reporting on CY2022 data). Confirmed LI and enrolled counts from CAP Participation tables. Estimated LI population (1,330,004 electric / 726,443 gas) from BCS estimated low-income customer counts. PECO CBO expansion — PA pipeline data, docket R-2022-3037368.