A Southwest Virginia utility is seeking another rate hike

Old Dominion Power, the state’s smallest investor-owned electric utility serving about 28,000 customers in Virginia’s southwestern tip, is again asking state regulators for a major rate increase, saying its current rates “do not permit it an opportunity to earn a fair rate of return.”

The utility, a subsidiary of Kentucky Utilities, is asking to increase its revenues by just over $12 million by increasing both the basic service charge all customers pay and the energy charge linked to the amount of electricity they consume.

If approved, the utility said the average residential customer would see their monthly bill rise by between $24 and $28.

The increase would follow another significant rate bump approved by the State Corporation Commission in April 2020. That hike, which increased Old Dominion Power’s revenues by $9 million, was expected to increase the average residential customer’s monthly bill by about $21. A hearing examiner, whose findings were accepted by the commission, determined that the outcome was “fair, reasonable and in the public interest.”

Read more: https://www.virginiamercury.com/2021/10/15/old-dominion-power-seeks-another-rate-hike/