Delegate takes on APCo rate hike proposal for 2nd time

By DAN KEGLEY
Media General News Service
Published: July 29, 2008

Delegate Bill Carrico (R-5th) said Tuesday he is repeating much of what he did last year in response to Appalachian Power Co.’s rate hike requests as the State Corporation Commission moves toward October hearings on the utility’s proposals.

Carrico said he is drafting letters to the SCC and the state attorney general, sharing constituents’ concerns that they cannot afford a 25 percent jump in their electricity bills.

His Web site developer is also working to bring back online a Web site that will provide a clearer link than the SCC’s own site does through which consumers can send feedback to the commission.

Not formed at this point is any plan for a coalition of legislators to band together in opposition to the hike, according to Carrico.

“I’ve not heard from anyone else yet, so I’m stepping out on my own to see what I can do,” Carrico said.
In late May, APCo asked the SCC for two electric rate increases that would raise customer bills more than 25 percent.

The first increase would raise the base rate charged consumers an average of 23.9 percent, according to a company news release. The second request involves raising the surcharge for environmental and reliability costs over current levels by about 2 percent.

“We recognize that an increase in electricity costs is an added burden for customers already struggling with significantly higher prices for gasoline, groceries and other necessities,” Dana Waldo, APCo president and chief operating officer, said in the news release. “The company is doing its best to control its costs and improve its efficiencies.”

The filings came one day after the SCC rejected an APCo request to recover $1 billion in construction costs for a West Virginia power plant from its Virginia customers.

Last spring, the commission reduced an APCo base rate increase from 25.4 percent to 3.1 percent and scolded the company for trying to delay refunds to customers who paid the higher rate for an interim period.

A hearing is set in September on an APCo rate request to increase the fuel factor 11.7 percent for average residential customers and more than 13 percent for heavy power users. The commission also granted the company’s request to implement the increase on an interim basis beginning on Sept. 1.

The September hearing is on the fuel rate “APCo is entitled to under federal law,” Carrico said. “Coal’s pretty much doubled in price. That’s what the cost of doing business has come to.”

As a state legislator, Carrico said he’d hold little influence over federal matters.

Carrico responded to electricity consumers’ outcry over a rate increase in the winter of 2007, spearheading communications with Appalachian Power Co. and the State Corporation Commission in January and joining a coalition in the legislature opposing a rate hike that drove consumers’ bills some 25 percent higher.

The delegate “sent a letter to the SCC notifying them of my opposition to Appalachian Power’s drastic rate increase proposal,” he said during that winter.  “I have urged them to adjust the company’s rate increase, and I hope they will take the responsible, customer-friendly steps necessary to achieve a reasonable compromise.”

Carrico said last year he contacted Attorney General Bob McDonnell who then suggested to the commission a 3.8 percent increase instead of 25 percent.

Last May, the commission reduced APCo’s base rate increase to 3.1 percent and scolded the company for trying to delay refunds to customers who paid the higher rate for an interim period.

Earlier this summer, Carrico called rate increases inevitable, “but I’m trying to help people relay their displeasure,” and said he had met with APCo officials.

“I told APCo they needed to do a better job communicating why they want the increase,” he said.