96,913 confirmed low-income electric customers were disconnected in a single year — many eligible for assistance they weren't receiving
Pennsylvania terminated 16% of its confirmed low-income electric customers in 2022. Met-Ed had the worst outcome: a 24.6% termination rate while enrolling only 36.7% of eligible customers in CAP. The relationship between enrollment and termination varies by utility, but the absolute scale of disconnection is consistent statewide.
Electric utilities: CAP enrollment rate vs. LI termination rate (sorted by enrollment)
CAP enrollment rate (higher = better)
Low-income termination rate (lower = better)
96,913
Confirmed low-income electric customers terminated (disconnected) statewide in 2022. That's 16% of all confirmed low-income electric customers — roughly 1 in 6.
24.6%
Met-Ed's low-income termination rate — the highest in the state. Met-Ed also has the second-lowest CAP enrollment rate (36.7%). The two metrics are structurally linked.
$321M
Total residential electric debt across all PA utilities in 2022. PPL alone accounts for $115.9M — 36% of statewide residential electric arrearages from a single utility.
PGW represents the most acute crisis: $73.8 million in residential gas customer debt, a 22.8% gross write-off ratio for confirmed low-income customers, and only 53.1% of CAP customer bills actually being paid. PGW spent $74.2 million on CAP in 2022 — the most of any gas utility — yet its customers have the highest debt levels in the state.
PA PUC Bureau of Consumer Services, Universal Service Report 2022. PGW data from Collections Performance tables and CAP Payment Statistics.
Sources: CAP enrollment rates — BCS Universal Service Report 2022, CAP Participation tables. Low-income termination rates — BCS Report, Confirmed Low-Income Terminations tables. Total residential debt — BCS Report, Collections Performance tables. PGW data — BCS Report, PGW-specific CAP and Collections sections. 96,913 terminations = sum of confirmed LI electric terminations across 7 EDCs.