The Public Service Commission (PSC) of West Virginia yesterday approved without change the settlement previously filed in Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power’s general rate case.

The Commission order grants the companies a combined annual increase in revenues of approximately $44 million or 5.5 percent, effective July 28. In addition, the order approved a mechanism to adjust rates in the future for the on-going costs of environmental improvements at the company’s Mountaineer and John Amos generating plants. Based on current projections, this would provide for increases of approximately $36 million in 2007, $14 million in 2008 and $18 million in 2009. Finally, the order reinstates a mechanism to reflect changes – both increases and decreases – in the costs of fuel and purchased power. Future rate adjustments under these mechanisms will occur no earlier than July 2007.  

Rates for customers of both Wheeling Power and Appalachian Power in West Virginia will be the same. Residential customers will see their bills rise from $55.28 to $58.98, a $3.60 increase, based on using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month.

Appalachian Power President and COO Dana Waldo said that rates have remained stable for more than 20 years, and are still among the lowest in the nation.

“In 1984, residential customers paid about $60 a month for 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity,” Waldo said. “Even with this increase, customers will still pay less than they did then.”

Appalachian Power provides electricity to 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 36,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.