HB 2131 (2025-2026) – Pennsylvania
Summary of Purpose, Provisions, and Impact
Overview
- Bill: HB 2131
- Session: 2025-2026
- Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
- Subject: Amends Title 66 (Public Utilities) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in the restructuring of the electric utility industry, with a focus on duties of electric distribution companies (EDCs).
- Status: Referred to the Consumer Protection, Technology & Utilities committee (as of 2026-01-23).
What the bill aims to do
- The bill is part of Pennsylvania’s framework for restructuring and regulating the electric utility sector. It seeks to modify, clarify, or expand the statutory duties of electric distribution companies as they operate within the electric utility market, potentially affecting how EDCs plan, invest, maintain, and interact with customers and other market participants.
Key provisions and changes (substantive themes)
- Duties of Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs): The bill would amend the statutory duties of EDCs under Title 66, likely addressing one or more of the following typical areas in PA restructuring:
- System reliability and service quality obligations
- Infrastructure investment and modernization requirements
- Customer service standards and complaint handling
- Responsive planning for grid modernization, distributed energy resources, and electrification initiatives
- Data access, information sharing, and interoperability with customers and third-party providers
- Rate design or cost recovery mechanisms related to system upgrades
- Consumer protections and transparency: Provisions may require EDCs to enhance transparency around rates, reliability metrics, outages, and service changes; ensure affordable service options; or tighten oversight of performance metrics.
- Planning and modernization: Possible emphasis on long-term planning processes (e.g., distribution system planning), grid resilience, and integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) such as solar, storage, and demand response.
- Compliance and enforcement: The bill could establish or modify regulatory enforcement tools, reporting requirements, and penalties for noncompliance with amended duties.
Who would be affected
- Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs) operating in Pennsylvania.
- Public utilities regulators and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), which administers and enforces utility duties.
- Utility customers, including residential, commercial, and industrial end-users who rely on EDCs for service reliability, pricing, and customer support.
- Market participants and third-party providers interacting with the distribution grid (e.g., DER operators, aggregators) depending on privacy, metering, data-sharing, and interoperability requirements.
- Local governments and potential stakeholders involved in grid modernization, resilience, or energy policy initiatives.
Procedural and timeline aspects
- Introduction and referral: As of January 2026, the bill has been introduced and referred to the Consumer Protection, Technology & Utilities committee.
- Next steps: The committee would consider public testimony, amendments, and potential passage to the full House for a vote. If enacted, the amendments would become part of Title 66 and take effect according to the bill’s specified effective dates (not provided in the excerpt; typical PA practice uses a defined effective date or phased-in timelines).
Notes and considerations
- The provided text does not include explicit statutory language, dollar amounts, or exact compliance timelines. The summary focuses on the bill’s structural aim to adjust EDC duties within the electric restructuring framework.
- To assess impact precisely, access to the bill’s full text would be needed, including definitions, specific duties changed or added, enforcement provisions, and any transitional provisions.
Conclusion
HB 2131 proposes amendments to the duties of electric distribution companies under Pennsylvania’s Title 66 to advance the restructuring framework’s objectives—potentially enhancing reliability, modernization, DER integration, consumer protections, and regulatory oversight. The bill is in the early legislative stage, pending committee consideration and potential floor action.
