Electric Consumers to See Lower Electricity Bills

Two decisions by the Public Service Commission of West Virginia will result in lower electricity bills for customers than Monongahela Power Co. and Potomac Edison Co. has requested.
The first approved a broad-based compromise that cuts in half a $207 million rate increase proposed by the utilities.
Instead of approving a 13 percent hike, the commission endorsed a multiparty joint stipulation to allow rates to increase by 6.4 percent, or $105 million.
In a separate order, the commission approved a joint stipulation in the companies’ depreciation case, resulting in an additional $33 million increase, effective on the first day of the month after the effective date of the new rates in the base rate case.
The companies filed the major rate increase case, called a base rate case, on May 31, 2023.
A total of 1,865 protest letters opposing the rates were received by the commission.
A key stumbling block to a settlement in the case was net metering, which determines how consumers who generate their own power and sell it to the power companies would be charged for transmitting their output along company lines.
The companies and staff witnesses testified that all current rate payers are subsidizing the companies’ 1,700 net metering customers.
As a result, the companies sought to impose a charge on future net metering customers, but agreed not to apply it to current customers for a 25-year period.
That compromise was approved by the commission.
Existing net metering customers received a retail rate of 11-13 cents per kilowatt hour for power their solar panels send to the grid. The companies sought to cut that in half for future customers.
The comprise set it at about 9 cents a kilowatt hour. It is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
In the second case, state regulators approved a compromise settlement proposal to grant $55.4 million in fuel charges to Monongahela Power Co. and The Potomac Edison Co. immediately.
The PSC also said in the order dealing with the Expanded Net Energy Cost (ENEC) rates of the companies that they would get an additional $92.1 million increase effective Jan. 1, 2025, to pay for fuel costs deferred as of now.
The companies on Aug. 31, 2023, filed for ENEC rate increases of $167.5 million. The companies at the time claimed an under-recovery balance of fuel costs totaling $267 million, but said they were willing to defer some of that to a later date.
The compromise was reached by a number of parties, including the companies, commission staff, the Consumer Advocate Division, outside companies and consumer advocate groups. It was the language the group worked out that the commission endorsed in this order.