ASHLAND,
Ky., Nov. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Kentucky
Power, an American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) company, filed a
settlement agreement with the Kentucky Public Service Commission
today in its ongoing base rate review.
The settlement agreement paves the way for Kentucky Power to
enhance reliability through expanded vegetation management and
other distribution programs while reducing customer bill impacts
initially proposed. The agreement also includes commitments, such
as more than doubling the number of customers eligible for programs
designed to assist low-income residential customers. Several groups
representing customers worked with Kentucky Power to reach the
agreement.
"Kentucky Power customers will benefit from this agreement which
will allow us to provide additional services for our most
vulnerable customers and improve reliability," said Cindy Wiseman, Kentucky Power president and COO.
"The agreement represents a constructive and positive step forward
for our customers that was accomplished through a meaningful
collaboration between the company and key customer groups. It
provides us with a pathway for investing in eastern Kentucky."
Kentucky Power had proposed several customer programs in its
initial filing, and additional programs were incorporated into the
settlement agreement. The agreement includes:
- Doubling the company's contribution to its residential energy
assistance program to expand the number of customers helped from
approximately 3,700 under the company's initial proposal to 5,700
customers per year. The company's current residential energy
assistance program currently assists approximately 2,700 customer
per year.
- More assistance for the most vulnerable residential customers,
including dedicating 21% of future energy efficiency programs to
low-income customers.
- An optional seasonal tariff to assist customers in addressing
high usage during winter months.
- Increased reliability projects, including an expanded
rights-of-way widening project, to address the fact that half of
outages are caused by trees falling outside of the company's
rights-of-way.
- Extending bill due dates from 15 to 21 days.
- Securitization, which is a financial tool that will lower bill
impacts related to certain existing costs for all customers.
The settlement agreement requests Commission approval for new
rates to be effective in mid-January. The agreement reduces the
overall rate impact to residential customers to less than 11%.
In addition, as part of the proposal, the company would suspend
recovery of the Decommissioning Rider and portions of the Purchase
Power Adjustment tariff until those costs are financed through
securitization. Securitization lowers financing costs and extends
the length of time over which Kentucky Power will recover these
costs, which helps keep monthly bills lower than they would be
under the current recovery process.
Parties to the settlement include the Kentucky Attorney General, Kentucky Industrial
Utility Customers, Walmart, Steel of West Virginia Kentucky; and a
group comprised of consumer advocate groups, such as Kentuckians
for the Commonwealth, the Mountain Association, Appalachian Law
Center and Kentucky Resources Council. All parties participated in
settlement negotiations and signed the agreement, with the Attorney
General and Steel of West Virginia
signing as non-opposing parties.
The settlement is subject to review and approval by the Kentucky
Public Service Commission.
Kentucky Power, with headquarters in Ashland, provides electric service to about
163,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties, including Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Clay,
Elliott, Floyd, Greenup, Johnson, Knott, Lawrence, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Magoffin, Martin, Morgan, Owsley, Perry, Pike
and Rowan. Kentucky Power is an operating company in the American
Electric Power (AEP) system. For more information, visit
kentuckypower.com.
At American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, we understand that our
customers and communities depend on safe, reliable and affordable
power. Our nearly 17,000 employees operate and maintain more than
40,000 miles of transmission lines, the nation's largest electric
transmission system, and more than 225,000 miles of distribution
lines to deliver power to 5.6 million customers in 11 states. AEP
also is one of the nation's largest electricity producers with
nearly 29,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including
approximately 6,100 megawatts of renewable energy. AEP is investing
$43 billion over the next five years
to make the electric grid cleaner and more reliable. We are on
track to reach an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from
2005 levels by 2030 and have a goal to achieve net zero by 2045.
AEP is recognized consistently for its focus on sustainability,
community engagement and inclusion. AEP's family of companies
includes utilities AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in
Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in
Tennessee), Indiana Michigan
Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power
Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana, east Texas and the Texas
Panhandle). AEP also owns AEP Energy, which provides
innovative competitive energy solutions nationwide. For more
information, visit aep.com.
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SOURCE Kentucky Power Company