With electricity costs climbing in Pennsylvania, a warning from state regulators that power generation is failing to keep up with demand is colliding with a legislative stalemate.<\/p>\n
In the House, lawmakers say measures to ease that strain have stalled in the Senate, leaving little prospect of immediate relief, WHTM<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n Here’s what to know<\/p>\n A Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission report acknowledged electricity prices are rising while the state’s power generation is not keeping pace, and House Democrats contend that a mostly bipartisan package of energy bills could help if the Senate acts on it.<\/p>\n State Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, a Philadelphia Democrat who chairs the House Energy Committee, warned that the problem is unfolding at an alarming pace, per WHTM.<\/p>\n “The energy shortfall is coming for us even faster than we expected,” Fiedler admitted.<\/p>\n House Democrats, including Fiedler, have already passed bills addressing efficiency requirements, greener power, grid upgrades, and virtual power plants.<\/p>\n Most of those measures have yet to advance in the Senate.<\/p>\n Senate Republican leadership did not answer questions about the holdup, per WHTM. The outlet also noted that the broader legislative standoff cuts both ways, with some Senate-passed measures \u2014 including voter ID legislation \u2014 still stuck in the House.<\/p>\n More background<\/p>\n Among proposals drawing attention is House Bill 2380 from state Rep. Nikki Rivera, a Lancaster Democrat.<\/p>\n The measure would use battery storage to save electricity during cheaper, off-peak hours and deploy it later when demand and prices are higher.<\/p>\n Rivera asserted that kind of storage could directly affect what residents pay.<\/p>\n “Battery storage can cut electricity costs for ratepayers by 30 to 60% in many cases, and at the system level can save hundreds of millions of dollars annually by reducing peak demand,” Rivera explained, per WHTM.<\/p>\n If Pennsylvania cannot add tools that reduce strain during high-demand periods, communities could face a grid that is both more expensive and less resilient, especially during heavy-use periods when outages can be especially disruptive.<\/p>\n For households looking for more control over their own energy costs, going solar is one of the best ways to save money on home energy. EasyHome<\/a>‘s free explorer tool lets you see pricing and savings from vetted installers in your area.<\/p>\n What’s being done?<\/p>\n House Democrats say they are trying to move the package.<\/p>\n They argue that bills on efficiency mandates, more green power, grid upgrades, and virtual power plants would help the state generate and manage electricity more cheaply.<\/p>\n Fiedler said frustration is mounting because the proposals have already passed the House.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, almost all of those bills are sitting in the Senate,” Fiedler observed.<\/p>\n “Many people feel frustrated right now. They’re looking for answers and wondering why the commonwealth isn’t doing more to lower bills and make sure those power outages never happen.”<\/p>\n For homeowners who want to explore options while lawmakers continue debating, EasyHome<\/a>‘s free explorer tool is a practical place to start. It provides information on backup battery storage, and pairing solar with a battery lets you maximize savings and keep the lights on when the grid goes down.<\/p>\n Fiedler indicated there is still hope for Senate action; otherwise, she expects the effort could resume.<\/p>\n Until then, the state’s broader response to rising electricity costs remains unresolved.<\/p>\n Fiedler said constituents are no longer willing to wait for action.<\/p>\n “People back home in any of our districts, they’re past excuses. They don’t want to hear [them]. They want us to keep the lights on.”<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With electricity costs climbing in Pennsylvania, a warning from state regulators that power generation is failing to keep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-312188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}