PPL Electric Utilities is asking a for delivery charge increase to pay for ongoing reliability improvements for its customers.

The company filed the request with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Tuesday. The total increase, spread across all of the company's 1.4 million customers, would be $167.5 million per year.If the entire amount of the request is approved, a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month who does not shop for electricity supply would see bills increase from $147.31 to $157.50, or about 6.9 percent. The majority of the company's residential customers, about 65 percent of them, use less electricity and would have a smaller increase in their monthly bills.Under the proposed increase, the total bill for a commercial customer receiving generation service from PPL Electric Utilities and using 1,000 kilowatt-hours with a maximum demand of 3 kilowatts would increase from $125.17 to $131.95 per month, or by 5.4 percent.The total bill for an industrial customer receiving generation service from PPL Electric Utilities and using 150,000 kilowatt-hours with a maximum demand of 500 kilowatts would increase from $13,366 to $13,524 per month, or 1.2 percent.Also, in a move that would have no impact on the amount customers pay, PPL has proposed that some fees already being paid as separate charges on customer bills be rolled into base rates. This would be completely offset by the reduction in these charges elsewhere on the bill, resulting in no increase in the total per-month charge.If approved by the PUC, the increase would take effect on Jan. 1, 2016. Customers may call PPL Electric Utilities at 1-800-342-5775 (DIAL-PPL) to get further information on the proposed increase or to find out what actions they may take.PPL says it's the first such request in three years.