Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power are now offering West Virginia customers the opportunity to support the generation of renewable energy by voluntarily participating in a new green pricing option.

Green energy is electric energy that is generated by using renewable resources such as wind, hydro, solar and biomass. West Virginia customers can now purchase blocks of green energy, which will be acquired from wind and hydro generated sources. Each block is equivalent to 100 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.

Residential customers may elect to purchase a minimum of two blocks and up to a maximum of 50 blocks at a cost of $1.50 per block. The typical residential customer uses an average of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month, so purchasing 10 blocks of green energy would match that usage.

The cost to purchase green energy blocks is in addition to a customer’s regular monthly electric bill, and will be reflected as a separate line item on the bill.

“This is a great opportunity for people to support renewable energy, and we are pleased to make the green pricing option available to our customers in West Virginia,” said Dana Waldo, Appalachian Power president and chief operating officer. “For every $1.50 applied to the green pricing option, customers are adding 100 kilowatt hours of green energy to the power supply in West Virginia,” Waldo said.

The green pricing option allows customers to support the value of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). A REC represents the environmental attributes that are created when electricity is generated using renewable resources. Customers will essentially pay for the value of the RECs and the company will retire them from future use.

To enroll in the program, customers should visit the company’s website at www.appalachianpower.com or call the Customer Solutions Center at 1-800-982-4237 if you are an Appalachian Power customer, or 1-800-852-6942 if you are a Wheeling Power customer.

Appalachian Power provides electricity to one million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than five million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined.