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FRANKFORT — Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman is urging Kentucky’s utility regulator to deny Kentucky Power’s rate increase request, citing in part an outpouring of backlash in public meetings in Eastern Kentucky.
Kentucky Power, an investor-owned electric utility serving 162,000 customers across 20 Eastern Kentucky counties, asked the Kentucky Public Service Commission in August for a rate hike that would increase its annual revenues by 14.62%.
Kentucky Power President Cynthia Wiseman in written testimony said the rate increase was needed because the utility is struggling to get an adequate return on its investments. The utility is a subsidiary of American Electric Power, or AEP, based in Columbus, Ohio.
In a Feb. 3 brief filed to the commission, Coleman wrote that despite “AEP and Kentucky Power’s lamentations about not earning enough money, importantly, Kentucky Power does not lose money.”
“Kentucky Power reliably turns a profit for its parent AEP each year,” Coleman wrote. “AEP and Kentucky Power are not hurting, but Kentucky Power’s ratepayers are hurting.”
Coleman in his brief pointed to meetings held by the Public Service Commission to collect public comments on the rate increase request in Pikeville, Hazard and Ashland as evidence that “the relationship between Kentucky Power and its ratepayers is broken.” A number of Kentuckians spoke to the commission in those meetings opposing the rate increase request as unaffordable.
“If AEP believes the territory is not sufficient for it to achieve its profit goal, then perhaps it is time to let someone else provide the people of Eastern Kentucky with electric service,” Coleman wrote.
Coleman’s request comes after Kentucky Power proposed in January a settlement endorsed by twp industry groups, Kentucky Industrial Utility Customers and Kentucky Solar Energy Industries Association. The utility said the settlement would benefit ratepayers by cutting in half the rate increase in the first year, reducing the amount of revenue collected by $18 million. Coleman did not join that proposed settlement agreement.
Sarah Lynch, a Kentucky Power spokesperson, in an emailed statement said “many customers are facing real financial pressure and we take those concerns seriously.”
“That said, we are disappointed in what the Attorney General filed today given that it undermines a variety of customer programs and the settlement agreement that provide significant benefits to our customers and ultimately attempts to undercut the Company’s ability to provide safe and reliable service to our customers,” Lynch said.
Coleman’s brief noted that Kentucky Power has requested, and received, rate increases from the commission in past years. The commission in 2024 granted Kentucky Power a considerably smaller rate increase than what it requested.
They need to talk to some retired or ex Ky Power employees and get their input.
Another politician running for re-election, they never really do anything for eastern KY, but I will say he done more than the others. When did electricity become a service for just rich elites? People here in Eastern Ky are struggling to pay electric bills that are at times higher than most rent. Eastern Ky gets a rate increase to make it shareholders richer while the rest of Ky gets a rate decrease, how does that make sense. The counties of Eastern Ky with the exception of Pike have had the economy destroyed with the war on coal and it never recovered from it. Many jobs were lost and with no jobs to replace the lost jobs, on top of that Ky power leaves Lawrence causing more job loss and loss of revenue for the county and they want to price gouge us without any mercy or thought of the people in these areas. Ky power is an evil company that does not care about the people it serves and is a willing participant in the destruction of these counties. Greed is the motivator and the facts not one representative has fought to stop this or to get the rates lowers is very telling of who is a shareholder might be.
Once again your majority of electricity comes from coal why are you still crying about a war on coal when your electric comes from coal ?
This might not be the place for this, but it needs to be pointed out this is what the people voted we have hit rock bottom. This came from the President of the United Staes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st0XIlrV8nQ
All you MAGA voters need more proof here you go.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sen-tim-scott-calls-trump-post-most-racist-thing-ive-seen-out-white-house
Not true most of the electric comes from gas as they said it would be cheaper as it turns out that was a lie
Just me the gas plant in Louisa is a 268-megawatt plant. The plant that is fired with coal in WV is 1,632-megawatt plant which half of it powers KY customers KY power bought half of this plant to replace the coal fired Big Sandy plants. Now by doing basic math 1,632 divide by 2 = 816 megawatts. Now which one does KY power gets the most fuel from natural gas or coal?
Keeping it real: the war on coal was under Obama. The comparison you made between oil and coal is irrelevant to want I wrote read it again. The mentioning of coal was about job loss and loss of tax revenue. Now when KY power moved operation to WVA plant its reasoning was it will save money for consumer and it would be cheaper. That was a lie, they have taken several rate hikes since the move to the Mitchell plant. Ky power has a monopoly which should be illegal and they price gouge this area, because the politicians in Frankfort does not care about this area, we don’t have enough voters to matter in state elections. I believe we should petition to leave the state or build a hydro-electric dam and throw KY power out of the area. That is my opinion and I do not care if anyone agrees with me.
Again, when you get the majority of your electric from coal your war on coal holds no water. Now what they should have done is fixed the scrubbers at the Big Sandy plants which was required under the clean air act which was signed under the first Bush presidency and that would have kept the tax revenue and jobs in KY not WV. That’s where your tax revenue and jobs went. But AEP already had bought the Mitchell plant in WV and now they are getting rewarded twice for that business decision. And another thing the gas plant on 23 also burns WV gas.
did the clean air act made electric plants install scrubbers
Yes, the Clean Air Act essentially forced many electric plants to install scrubbers, though the requirement evolved significantly through different sets of amendments:
1970 Amendments: These initial rules set sulfur dioxide (SO2) limits for new coal plants but allowed utilities to choose their own compliance method. Many chose to simply burn “clean” low-sulfur coal instead of installing expensive scrubbers.
1977 Amendments: This update created a “mandated scrubber rule”. It required all new coal-fired plants to use the “best technological system” for continuous emission reduction, which effectively meant installing scrubbers regardless of the sulfur content in the coal they burned.
1990 Amendments: The “Acid Rain Program” shifted toward a cap-and-trade system. Instead of a flat mandate for every plant, the government set a total emissions cap and issued “allowances”. Plants could choose to install scrubbers, switch to cleaner fuels, or buy extra allowances from cleaner plants.
Grandfathering: Older plants built before the 1970s were often “grandfathered” in, meaning they didn’t have to install scrubbers unless they underwent major renovations.
By 2019, because of these rolling regulations and newer standards like the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), approximately 82% of U.S. coal-fired capacity was equipped with scrubbers (flue-gas desulfurization).
Obama did not sign the FIRST BILL that made KY power coal plant to shut down it was a business decision
Tearing down our coal powered plant was NOT necessary. KY Power LIED to us when they told us that they had to tear it down. That plant could have been redone but wasn’t, because sneaky KY Power already had other secret plans under their hat. All our plant needed was the scrubber, and they most certainly could have done that. Instead they bold-faced lied and destroyed it. We still have coal. We could still have much cheaper electricity. Yes. We know all too well what they’ve done to us.
Keeping it Real: I starting to think you work for the power company, you defend their actions so vehemently. They did install scrubbers on the Big Sandy plant; the problems were the Obama administration and the other globalist wanted to destroy the coal industry. The Mitchell plant according to Ky power is in need of updates and repairs. We pay the highest electric bill in the state, this is price gouging and illegal for companies to do this. There has been several petitions to Frankfort to get attention to this and to stop it. Still Frankfort does nothing because this area in KY does not matter to them. Ky power also has a monopoly which put the citizens in this area at their mercy giving Ky power the ability to price gouge and the citizens of Eastern Ky no power to fight it. If you look at the court case against Standard Oil it violated the Sherman anti-trust act and made to dissolve its holdings due to it having a monopoly perhaps this should be looked at for Ky power.
It’s Me tell me why KY power had plans to install scrubbers in the big sandy plants and instead bought half of the Mitchell plant?
“AEP temporarily withdrew plans to install a scrubbed system on Big Sandy’s Unit 2 in June, saying it wanted to reevaluate alternatives to meeting the company’s obligations under the federal Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, the Mercury and Air Toxic Standard, and other environmental standards. The filing on Wednesday would result in an estimated 8% increase on customers’ bills compared with an increase of about 31% that would have resulted had AEP proceeded with a plan to install a scrubber system at Big Sandy.”
https://www.powermag.com/aep-to-retire-800-mw-big-sandy-coal-unit-by-2015/
KY should have never let it happen, but they did it was a business decision