West Virginia Rate Review

Frequently Asked Questions

What are base rates and what do they include?

Base rates refer to the costs of building, maintaining and operating our electric system, including power plants, transmission and distribution lines and facilities to serve you and your neighbors. Base rates do not include the fuel portion of your bill. Fuel and purchased power is an expense to you with no profit to us.

What factors contributed to our request to modify base rates?

Our request to modify our base rates reflects inflation, higher material and labor costs, rising capital costs and higher interest rates. Additional contributing factors include the recovery of over $118 million for major storm costs since 2019 and the cost recovery of over a billion dollars in investments made in power generating plants, the regional transmission system and distribution systems.

What does the filing request?

The filing requests a revenue increase of $250.5 million, or 14.1%, in our non-fuel base rates and a 10.8% return on equity (ROE).

What solutions for customers are you offering for the Public Service Commission's consideration?

We propose to lessen the impact on our customers through securitization and implementing an alternative ratemaking approach to simplify our rates further while maximizing our investments to improve service reliability.

Our proposal to securitize our request through the sale of bonds would reduce the increase on all West Virginia customers by 72% from 14.1% to 3.8%, or a revenue increase of approximately $75 million. A West Virginia residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) would see an overall monthly bill increase of approximately 3.8%, or $6.72. Without leveraging the 2023 securitization legislation, traditional recovery would result in an overall monthly bill increase of 13.5%, or $23.74, for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh.

We proposed a new rate-making method that would eliminate several of our existing surcharges to stabilize future rates while improving reliability and reducing annual rate adjustment filings.

How would this impact a customer's bill?

Our securitization proposal would result in an overall bill increase of approximately $6.72 per month, or 3.8%, for a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month.

A traditional recovery would result in an overall bill increase of approximately $23.74 per month, or 13.5%, for a residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month.

The proposed Electricity Rate Stabilization (ERS) mechanism would eliminate several existing surcharges to stabilize future base rates within 3% annually while improving reliability and reducing annual rate adjustment filings.

Note: The average West Virginia Residential customer uses 1,123 kWh/month.

How will the request be approved?

The PSC regulates the review process and examines the costs for the system that delivers power to you - from the electric poles and wires to the substations and associated maintenance. In making its determination, the PSC will examine our cost of service and earnings during the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2023.

If approved, when would new rates be put into effect?

Any increase to the companies' rates will not be put into effect until approved by the PSC, which can take up to 300 days to render a decision.

As a customer, do I have a say in the decision-making process?

Anyone desiring to intervene or file a written protest should contact the West Virginia Public Service Commission at P.O. Box 812, Charleston, W.Va. 25323 or visit psc.state.wv.us for more information.