Most Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. customers will pay slightly less for electric service starting April 1.

On Thursday (3/30), the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved a $2.8 million decrease in the Energy Cost Rate and accepted a $5.3 million reduction in the State Tax Adjustment Surcharge. The net effect of these changes will reduce bills overall by $8.1 million, or about one-third of 1 percent.

The ECR is adjusted each year to account for changes in fuel costs, power purchases from non-utility generators and other utilities, and power sales to other utilities.

Factors that led to a reduction this year include excellent performance by PP&L's power plants, especially the Susquehanna nuclear power plant, and a reduction in required payments for electricity from two non-utility generators.

Because of changes made last year in the way the ECR is applied, the effect of Thursday's decision varies by customer group. Residential customers will experience a $4.9 million decrease, commercial customers a $5.4 million decrease and medium-sized industrial customers a $0.4 million decrease. The group of largest industrial customers will see a $2.6 million increase.

The bill of a residential customer using 500 kilowatt-hours a month will decrease from $44.82 to $44.59, or one-half of 1 percent.

The bill of a commercial customer using 1,500 kilowatt-hours a month with a peak demand of 12 kilowatts will decrease from $177.02 to $175.96, or six-tenths of 1 percent.

The bill of an industrial customer with 12,000-volt service who uses 400,000 kilowatt-hours a month and has a peak demand of 1,000 kilowatts will decrease from $27,116 to $27,078, or one-tenth of 1 percent. The bill of an industrial customer with 69,000-volt service who uses 5 million kilowatt-hours a month and has a peak demand of 10,000 kilowatts will increase from $285,485 to $287,424, or seven-tenths of 1 percent.