Stakeholders split over scope and incentives in proposed rewrite of Pennsylvania's Act 129

At a public hearing of the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee, stakeholders debated proposed changes to Act 129 contained in House Bill 505 and what those changes would mean for ratepayers, utilities and industry.

House Bill 505 would modernize Act 129, Pennsylvania’s energy efficiency and conservation statute, by broadening eligible measures to include resilience technologies such as solar and batteries, changing how savings are counted, and adjusting penalties and incentives for utilities.

The bill’s sponsors presented the measure as a way to update Act 129 for current energy challenges; witnesses and commissioners instead focused the hearing on where responsibility and cost should fall and on whether resilience and demand‑response belong inside Act 129.

“In our view, the energy efficiency and conservation program is not the appropriate program to address this issue,” said Rod Williamson, Executive Director of the Industrial Energy Consumers of Pennsylvania, arguing that resiliency measures for continuing consumption during outages are distinct from the consumption‑reduction goals of Act 129. Williamson urged that resiliency be explored separately and opposed giving electric distribution companies (EDCs) additional financial…