PECO seeks $429m for reliability and network upgrades

PECO has asked the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to approve a $429 million increase in electric distribution revenue, with the filing built around reliability work, storm resilience, business growth, and a wider programme of distribution reinforcement. The utility has also requested an $81 million gas rate increase, but the electric filing is the more substantial network story.

The proposed electric increase would raise revenue by about 11%. PECO has said it expects to spend roughly $2.8 billion on its distribution system between the start of 2026 and the end of 2027, including a $130 million, eight-year vegetation management programme targeted at parts of the network with higher outage levels. The utility is also aligning much of the planned spending with its long-term infrastructure improvement plan, which covers projects to prevent storm-related outages, replace electric cables, and replace or retire substation equipment and smaller substations.

The filing also includes a proposal to study how residential solar and battery systems could reduce peak demand and lower system costs. That does not yet amount to a deployment programme, but it does place distributed flexibility inside a mainstream utility rate case rather than treating it as a standalone innovation initiative.

PECO’s broader capital programme is larger still. Evidence filed in support of the request places total capital spending at about $9.8 billion between 2026 and 2030, reflecting the scale of replacement and growth now working through U.S. distribution businesses as load, weather risk, and asset age begin to pull in the same direction.