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West Virginia Rate Review

We want to keep our customers informed about recent rulings made by the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC) regarding Appalachian Power (APCo) and Wheeling Power.

Base Rate Case

The PSC has approved a base rate increase of $76.1 million. This is significantly lower than the initial request of $250.5 million, which was aimed at ensuring reliable electric service and meeting the growing demand in West Virginia.

Securitization Order

In a positive move for our Mountain State customers, the PSC has allowed APCo to recover approximately $2.4 billion in investments and expenses through consumer rate relief bonds. This method will ultimately save our customers money compared to traditional recovery methods. The order also includes provisions for consolidating under-recovered balances from various cases, including expanded net energy costs and deferred storm costs from significant events like Hurricane Helene.

Investment Recovery

The PSC's order permits the securitization of the company's share of undepreciated plant balances from the Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell power plants. It also addresses costs associated with compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Looking Ahead

Aaron Walker, APCo's president and chief operating officer, expressed satisfaction with the PSC's support for our recommendation to use securitization for customer relief. However, we are disappointed that the PSC did not fully acknowledge the complete investment made on behalf of our customers.

The securitization process will take several months, and once the bonds are issued, we will implement several rate changes that will lead to an overall decrease in rates.

More on securitization

Benefits for You

Investing in and maintaining our generation, transmission and distribution network is essential for minimizing and shortening outages, accommodating growing energy demands and integrating new energy sources.

Since our last base rate increase more than five years ago, we have invested over a billion dollars in upgrading and modernizing the grid to ensure we are supporting you and your neighbors' current and future energy needs. The investments we've made - and will continue to make - allow us to restore power more quickly and efficiently following major storms, such as Hurricane Helene.

See our progress

We're Here to Help

Learn about base rates from President & COO Aaron Walker and discover resources that may be available for your energy needs. Let's work together to find the right option for you.

Our top priority is keeping power flowing to you and your neighbors. Hear from Manager of Distribution Systems Ray Fletcher about how base rates positively impact reliability in your community.

Resources We Provide

We recognize that this review comes when individuals, families and businesses are seeing higher costs for products and services, including electric bills.

Please know that we offer several programs, services and rebates to help you control your energy usage and lower monthly bills, including:

Frequently Asked Questions

Base rates refer to the costs of building, maintaining and operating our electric system, including power plants, transmission and distribution lines and facilities to serve you and your neighbors. Base rates do not include the fuel portion of your bill. Fuel and purchased power is an expense to you with no profit to us.
Our request to modify our base rates reflects inflation, higher material and labor costs, rising capital costs and higher interest rates. Additional contributing factors include the recovery of over $118 million for major storm costs since 2019 and the cost recovery of over a billion dollars in investments made in power generating plants, the regional transmission system and distribution systems.
In November 2024, the filing requested a revenue increase of $250.5 million, or 14.1%, in our non-fuel base rates. Since then, we have been able to reduce the requested increase to $224 million, which is a 12.1% increase.

We propose to lessen the impact on our customers through securitization and implementing an Electricity Rate Stabilization (ERS) mechanism to simplify our rates further while maximizing our investments to improve service reliability.

Our proposal to securitize our request through the sale of bonds to investors would significantly reduce the impact on our customers. Without securitization, a rate increase of 12.1% would result in a $21 increase for residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh).

With our securitization proposal, a residential customer using 1,000 kWh would result in a monthly bill increase of 3.4% or $6.00.

In addition, the ERS mechanism would eliminate several of our existing surcharges to stabilize future rates while improving reliability and reducing annual rate adjustment filings.

Our securitization proposal would result in an overall bill increase of approximately $6.00 per month, or 3.4%, for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month.

A traditional recovery would result in an overall bill increase of approximately $21 per month, or 12.1%, for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month.

The proposed Electricity Rate Stabilization (ERS) mechanism would eliminate several existing surcharges to stabilize future base rates within 3% annually while improving reliability and reducing annual rate adjustment filings.

Note: The average West Virginia Residential customer uses 1,123 kWh/month.

The PSC regulates the review process and examines the costs for the system that delivers power to you - from the electric poles and wires to the substations and associated maintenance. In making its determination, the PSC will examine our cost of service and earnings during the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2023.
Any increase to the companies' rates will not be put into effect until approved by the PSC, which can take up to 300 days to render a decision.
Anyone desiring to intervene or file a written protest should contact the West Virginia Public Service Commission at P.O. Box 812, Charleston, W.Va. 25323 or visit psc.state.wv.us for more information.

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