Allegheny Power Files for Rate Increase in West Virginia (Business Wire)
Here’s a shock!
Released on the Friday before a three-day weekend. Hmm. Guess they didn’t want anyone to notice.
Allegheny Power, the electric delivery subsidiary of Allegheny Energy, Inc. AYE, today submitted a request to the Public Service Commission of West Virginia to recover an additional $173 million (annualized) in fuel and purchased power costs, effective January 1, 2009.
The proposed increase is largely due to the dramatic rise in coal prices, which is the single largest component of Allegheny’s cost of producing electricity. Since the company’s current rates went into effect in 2007, coal prices have more than tripled, rising 236 percent. Under a cost recovery clause established by the commission last year, customer bills are adjusted annually to reflect upward or downward changes in the cost of fuel and purchased power.
Allegheny’s rates in the state have been stable for many years. On January 1, 1998, the average residential 1,000 kilowatt-hour customer bill was about $70. Today it is about $73, which is among the lowest in the nation.
After the proposed rate increase, the monthly bill for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours will be approximately $86, an increase of about $13 compared to current rates. This is well below the regional average of $100 and the national average of $104.
The filing today was made jointly by Monongahela Power Company and The Potomac Edison Company, both subsidiaries of Allegheny Energy.