PA Utilities: PPL order good but political overhang lingers

Research evidence excerpt

PA Utilities: PPL order good but political overhang lingers

Utilities

Utilities/Regulateds - Market Overweight

PA Utilities: PPL order good but political overhang lingers June 4, 2026

The Wolfe Byte

The PaPUC approved PPL's rate case settlement with a minor modification. A good data point, particularly for PPL,

but the PA political/regulatory overhang is not fully lifted for AWK, EXC, FE, NI, or even PPL. None is majority

exposed to PA and only AWK has an active case.

PA approval of PPL rate case a good data point but political overhang to persist. On 6/4, the Pa PUC approved

PPL's rate case settlement with a minor modification related to net metering. We think it was good because the PaPUC

seemingly did not get bogged down by the political noise and proposals around utility ratemaking. For PPL, the order

removes an overhang on its financials. Although PPL thanked Gov Shapiro's "constructive engagement" in its case, we

would not view approval as an all-clear event for PA-exposed utilities, given the Gov's new utility watchdog did not

intervene in the case. The Gov issued a letter to utilities with his required ratemaking principles after PPL had already

settled. We still worry about future cases in PA. But only AWK has a pending rate case and no utility has more than

27% of rate base exposed to PA.

Relief for PPL; unlikely signatories will withdraw from settlement on minor modification. PPL's case was its first

since 2015 and settled with key parties for a $275M increase in base distribution revenue after the Gov's initial

utility affordability comments. Although blackbox on ROE or cap structure, it included more transparency on drivers

and customer impacts. The PUC's modification was related to a narrow item (net metering for ag/dairy customers).