by Tracy Lira and Meg Clark
Here is a quick, low/no-cost step that could have the biggest impact on your family’s greenhouse gas emissions: Switch to 100% clean, renewable electricity supplier for your home.
Here’s what you need to know:
Default PECO electricity comes from about equal parts coal, nuclear and natural gas, with a small fraction renewable—do you really want to be subsidizing this?
100% renewable electricity is competitive TODAY with fossil fuel-heavy default electricity.
It takes only 10 minutes to sign up. All you need is your PECO account number.
There is more than one clean electricity provider. Using PA Power Switch you can pick the plan with the price and features you desire (instructions below).
PECO remains your distributor. You will continue to receive only one bill from PECO and still contact PECO for outages and service.
While your provider will remind you when your term is up, it's best to add it to your calendar as well, so you can make sure the price is still competitive, similar to your cable or mobile phone contract.
Instructions:
Go to http://www.papowerswitch.com.
Enter your zip code.
Select ‘Regular Residential Service.’
Click ‘See Full Results.’
On the left side, sort by: Price (low to high).
Scroll down and select Fixed Price, No Monthly Fee, and Renewable Energy.
Click ‘Filter Results’ and pay attention to the term length, % renewable, and any cancellation fees you may object to.
Click ‘Sign up for this Offer’ to sign up on provider website.
Note: You can also call and ask provider for plans or rates not listed. Pay attention to contract details. The new supplier will contact PECO and process on your behalf.
Have questions regarding the process? Interested in having a workshop in your community? Contact HavSwitch@gmail.com to speak with citizen “clean electricity evangelists” (not salespeople) with experience in this switch.
Tracy Lira and Meg Clark are “citizen clean electricity evangelists” from Havertown-Area Community Action Network (H-CAN).