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The State Corporation Commission found a base rate increase that will generate another $9.7 million in annual revenue to be “just and reasonable,” allowing the company to recover its costs at a fair rate of return. When it filed its application in March , Appalachian asked for $95.
1 million — which would have increased the monthly electricity bill of an average residential customer by about $10. After revising its figures several times to correct errors, Appalachian wound up seeking about $40 million in additional annual revenue. The company could not say Wednesday how an average residential customer would be impacted by the SCC’s decision to approve a much lower figure of $9.
7 million. The utility is still reviewing the commission’s order, according to Appalachian spokesman George Porter. “We feel that the Order strikes a reasonable balance between the company's financial health and the impact on our customers,” Porter wrote in an email.
At a five-day hearing in September, “the evidence was overwhelming that many of Appalachian’s customers are struggling to pay rapidly rising electricity bills,” William Reisinger, an attorney for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, wrote in a brief filed with the SCC. An earlier base rate increase that took effect in January added another $16 to the bill of an average residential customer, which is defined as a home that consumes 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month. Reisinger wrote that in 2007, the bill for an average home was about $66.
Today, the amount is about $173. The Virginia Poverty Law Center asked — and the SCC agreed — that Appalachian be required to come up with a plan to reduce residential disconnections for non-payment, saying that happened 68,000 times in 2023. Appalachian serves about 540,000 customers in the western half of Virginia.
Clean Virginia, an advocacy organization that describes its mission as fighting the monopoly that utilities have on Virginia’s energy market, submitted to the SCC a letter opposing the increase that was electronically signed by 3,632 people. In its application, Appalachian said it needed more money for a variety of reasons: to restore service during major storms; trim trees and vegetation around power lines to reduce the risk of outages, pay rising interest rates; and meet the increased costs for capital, material and labor. The approved rate increase will take effect early next year.
In previous rate cases, the SCC said that while it was sympathetic to the plight of customers, it had to follow the law and the evidence in granting large increases for the utility. No such language appeared in Wednesday’s 22-page order..
