Mark Pinsley, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania Senate District 16, would require utilities to prove a rate increase is needed, with hard numbers, before the state can approve it.
What’s on your bill
A PPL bill has two main parts:
- Generation — the electricity itself. This price changes a couple of times a year, usually June 1 and December 1.
- Delivery — the poles, wires and equipment that bring power to your home. This rate is set by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC).
Why bills jump instead of rising slowly
Utilities don’t ask for delivery rate increases very often, because the process is long and expensive. So they wait years and then ask for a lot at once.
PPL’s last increase request before 2025 was in 2016 — about nine years earlier. (PUC)
What happened in 2025: PPL asked for $356.3 million more a year. In June 2026, the PUC approved about $275 million. A typical home’s monthly bill went from about $177 to about $184. The decision also added protections meant to keep data centers and other big users from pushing their costs onto everyone else. (PUC)
But that covers one utility. Only the legislature can set rules for the whole state.
Part of your bill is profit
In 2024, about 20 cents of every dollar PPL collected went to profit for its investors. That was the highest of 22 utilities in the regional power grid, and the highest in Pennsylvania. The regional average was about 12 cents. (Energy and Policy Institute, March 2026)
On a $184 monthly bill, that’s roughly $440 a year.
Utilities are allowed to make a profit — the PUC sets how much. But customers should know that a fifth of PPL’s bill went to its investors, more than any similar utility in the region.
What Pinsley would change
The PUC has five members, all appointed by the governor. It sets prices for electricity, natural gas, water and phone service.
Pinsley would require the PUC to demand hard data — real, documented costs, not projections nobody checks — before approving any increase.
He would also give families a real advocate in every rate case by strengthening Pennsylvania’s Office of Consumer Advocate, the state office that represents customers when a utility asks to raise rates, with the staff and funding to challenge every increase, line by line. Jarrett Coleman cast the Senate’s only vote against funding it (Roll Call 524).
Mark Pinsley believes that monopolies stifle price competition. Making a monopoly show its work before it raises the price of something everyone needs shouldn’t be controversial.
How the candidates compare: How do Mark Pinsley and Jarrett Coleman compare on electric bills and utilities?
District 16 covers parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties. The general election is November 3, 2026.
