The Borough of Mifflinburg is one of 35 Pennsylvania communities that owns its electrical system. Our Borough owns and operates the electric utility distribution system dedicated to serving Mifflinburg’s residents and businesses. This decision was made in the early 1900’s by Mifflinburg’s leaders to ensure that our residents had the services they needed.
Owning our own electrical system has many benefits; one is that all decisions made regarding the operation of the system are made locally by the Borough’s Elected Officials, for the benefit of the community. There are no shareholders demanding higher profits on their investment, just service and investment in the Mifflinburg community. Another benefit is the swift local response to electrical outages, meaning there are only short interruptions in service. Additionally, we have local employees to provide these services.
Mifflinburg Borough Council has entered into power supply agreements through the American Municipal Power Association. These supply agreements extend over several years to help to stabilize the costs of energy to help to ensure that our energy rates are stabilized to some extent.
However, just like the larger electrical suppliers, not all components of our supply can be controlled locally since we are connected to a regional supply grid that helps to ensure that the lights remain on even during peak electricity demand days. This regional supply grid (PJM Interconnection) must ensure that there is enough capacity within the grid to supply every customer’s needs all year long.
PJM analyzes the capacity available from all generators and the pricing for this capacity is determined through auctions held at predetermined times. The most recent auctions have seen rates reach unprecedented levels which are driving all electric rates higher for every customer in the PJM service area. Several factors have contributed to these increases: rising demand nationwide and locally, more regulations regarding generation, fewer power plants in service and new generation not being built quickly enough.
In addition to these increased capacity costs, the Borough of Mifflinburg is also facing the loss of its’ largest customer for 2026. This loss will be felt in many ways-most significantly in the loss of revenue and jobs.
Due to all of these factors and future uncertainties in the Electric Supply market, the Borough has been working closely with our Electrical Engineers to re-evaluate the Borough’s electric rate structure to meet these rising electric costs. The Study prepared by the Utility Engineers can be found in the link below. This study has recommended that the billing structure be changed to reflect the same structure in which the Borough is billed by their supplier. This change in billing structure will simplify billing to some extent, but it is also designed to cover the increasing costs. Borough Council recognizes that these increases will affect every customer and has made every effort to cut costs and only increase rates the bare minimum required to meet the needs of operations. Borough Council has also been very careful to ensure that the rates remain competitive with other area suppliers to ensure that the costs of living and doing business in Mifflinburg remain comparable to other communities in our area.
2025 Preliminary Electric Rate Study