Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power hope to recover $131.7 million in costs without raising rates

Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power filed a proposal this week with the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC) to regain $131.7 million in unrecovered costs without raising customers’ rates, due to savings from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

The two utilities made their request alongside filings of their Expanded Net Energy Cost (ENEC) and Vegetation Management Program (VMP). They believe the federal tax code change will allow them to offset those items’ costs, reimbursing them for fuel and purchased power on a dollar-for-dollar basis, as well as the cost of right-of-way trimming and spraying. In the end, that fact could spare the average residential customer a rate hike of 11.3 percent.

“Applying federal tax reform savings to offset unrecovered fuel and vegetation management costs allows us to keep ENEC and VMP rates unchanged, which is a real benefit for customers,” Appalachian Power President and COO Chris Beam said. “Rates in West Virginia have not changed in two years, since July 2016.”

Beam also noted these are not the only ways the company is looking to pass tax reform benefits to their customers, but it is a start. Costs are rising, though, and the company is looking for methods of offsetting this, as well as dealing with losses among Appalachian’s electric load and improving reliability in the system.