Published: March 05, 2008 09:12 pm            

APCO rate increase could have ‘devastating’ repercussion

BLUEFIELD — When word of Appalachian Power Company’s Feb. 29, rate increase request hit the news this week, the Bluefield Union Mission was already planning an event aimed at raising money to help people meet their utility bills.

“People are having to make tough calls every day,” Craig Hammond, executive director of the Union Mission said. “They’re experiencing the real down side of being on hard times. Today was a busy day too,” he said. “We had a guy and his mother in here living day-to-day in a motel and trying to get into an apartment.

“They’re both working menial jobs ... whatever they can get,” Hammond said. “It will cost them a little more to live in an apartment, but they can make it. It’s the deposits to get their utilities turned on that’s holding them back. That’s what we were able to help them with.”

Hammond said that the Union Mission already helps about 200 families meet their utility bills each month. “A lot of people didn’t get their gas turned on this year because they couldn’t afford to pay the deposit,” Hammond said. “They just got a couple of space heaters and tried to make it through the winter that way. Our goal is to help families enough so they won’t get their utilities cut off.

“We’ve had a record number of people coming in for help this winter,” Hammond said. “If we think it’s bad now, it will be brutal when the power company gets a 17 percent rate increase. I know APCO helps families with their Neighbor to Neighbor program, but all of those families come from the Department of Health and Human Services. A rate increase that high could be devastating. We’ll see a lot worse than what we’ve seen this year.”

APCO and Wheeling Power filed a joint rate increase with the West Virginia Public Service Commission asking for a $156 million or 17 percent increase in revenue. If the PSC approves the increase, APCO customers would see the increase on their bills starting on July 1, according to APCO spokesperson Phil Moye.

“This is an annual filing based on a 2006 agreement with the PSC,” Moye said. He noted that the rate increase request is based solely on increases in APCO’s cost of doing business — primarily due to higher costs for coal. “Fuel costs tend to be volatile which we have little control over,” Moye said. “The cost of coal has increased dramatically. We work on long-term contracts to keep our costs down, but we have to purchase coal to meet our customers’ demands.”

The breakdown of the rate increase includes $84 million to cover revenue increases in fuel-related costs; $50 million for power APCO purchased, $17 million for environmental investments and $5 million for reliability improvements. “The $17 million in the request is for scrubbers at our John Amos and Mountaineer power plants,” Moye said of the improvements. “Everything goes around coal. This is an annual filing. If the cost of fuel was down, we would adjust our rates to benefit our customers. There is no profit portion in this rate increase request.”

Moye said that the PSC has not yet told APCO their schedule for reviewing the request. He said personnel at APCO’s call centers can help customers learn more about the Neighbor to Neighbor program and will direct people to other places where they may receive assistance.

Hammond said the Union Mission will have a special “Spring Tour of Italy” fund-raising dinner at the Villa Italia on April 20 with a three-course Italian food meal for $15 per person with 100 percent of the funds raised going to the mission’s utility help program.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

        

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