A utility asked Virginia regulators for nine dollars and ten cents more a month. The deal now on the table says zero next year, then ninety-two cents. What I want to know is where the rest of that money went. This is Power Bill, for Wednesday, October twenty-first. After Virginia, BGE and Baltimore City Hall fight over a nine-dollar surcharge, and Los Angeles households open two-month bills in the thousands. Southwest Virginia first.
Matt Busse, reporting for Cardinal News:
Appalachian Power Co.’s residential customers would see no increase in their electric rates for a year beginning March 1 and would see an increase of 92 cents on the average monthly bill the year after that under a proposed compromise pending before state regulators.
We covered Appalachian Power's request on October sixth: about $61 million more a year, or $9.10 a month at 1,000 kilowatt-hours. Now there's a settlement, filed with the State Corporation Commission on October 14 and argued in Richmond on Tuesday. It's still a proposal. The commission has the final say. Here's what it does to the bill. No increase in base rate revenue. Residential rates flat for a year starting March 1, then 92 cents a month starting March 2028. The fixed customer charge stays at $7.96 instead of rising to $9. And the return on equity goes to 9.8 percent, a hair above today's 9.75 and well under the 10.5 the company asked for. Now the catch. A big reason base rates don't move is that costs like tree trimming come out of base rates and go into separate charges called riders, which APCo will ask for later. Will Reisinger, representing the Virginia Poverty Law Center and Virginia Organizing, put it plainly: customers feel that bill increase the same way, wherever it comes from. And one rider is already pending in a separate case. Cardinal News says it would add $3.99 a month on the average residential bill from March 1, to recover renewable energy costs. So even with this deal, March bills could still rise. And reconnection fees for people whose power has been shut off weren't settled. That's still being argued. For APCo's roughly 466,000 residential customers, the dates are briefs by November 24 and a commission ruling by January 15.
WBAL-TV in Baltimore reports:
The utility company said it would pass the additional costs to Baltimore City residents through a surcharge estimated to be around $9 per month starting next year under a new proposal. The proposal is now under consideration of the Maryland Public Service Commission.
Nine dollars a month, only for Baltimore City residents. It's a fight between the utility and City Hall over rent for the city's underground conduit, with households stuck in the middle. The background, per WBAL. Over the summer the city's Board of Estimates voted to raise what BGE pays to use that conduit by 84 percent, to a fee of $4.05 per linear foot, adjusted for inflation. BGE says that's about $50 million a year. Chief executive Tamla Olivier called it a money grab at a news conference Tuesday. City Hall fired right back. Mayor Brandon Scott, Council President Zeke Cohen and Comptroller Bill Henry say BGE is trying to avoid paying its fair share, and they're asking the commission to reject what they call an unprecedented surcharge. The Capital Gazette reports city leaders also call it illegal. That's their claim. No regulator has ruled. Here's the line I'd circle. If the commission turns down the city-only surcharge, BGE says it would put a $2.20 monthly surcharge on every BGE customer instead, wherever they live. So on BGE's own numbers, either city households pay about nine dollars, or everyone pays about two-twenty. Both are proposals. And it stacks. On October 12 we told you about BGE's separate request to raise distribution rates by about eight dollars a month on average. WBAL says a decision on that is expected in January. Approved in full, that's roughly seventeen dollars a month for a city household, from two filings. Public comment hearings in the base-rate case start Monday, October 26.
Leanne Suter and Josh Haskell, reporting for ABC7 Los Angeles:
Bass is going further, saying LADWP customers can pay what they are able to afford right now. She also asked the LADWP board to pause utility shutoffs through the end of the year for customers facing higher bills following record heat. If approved, no customer's electricity or water service would be shut off for the remainder of the year.
Mayor Karen Bass announced this on Tuesday, in a mayoral race where these bills have become a campaign issue. And look at the bills. Micah Reed in West Hills got $3,300 for two months of power, water and sanitation, $2,100 of it electricity. An extreme case. Reed told ABC7 he has a pool and an electric vehicle. Sure. But listen to the utility's explanation. Interim general manager Dave Hanson says summer heat waves pushed usage to near-record levels and into higher pricing tiers, and that it's not so much the rate as the usage. Yet ABC7 reports electric rates themselves rose seven percent from the previous year. What the pause is, and isn't. It's a request to the LADWP board, for customers who can't pay, through December. It isn't forgiveness. Hanson told NBC Los Angeles that under Proposition 26 and state law the utility still has to collect for what was used, but it can offer payment agreements at zero percent interest. And nobody has said what happens in January. NBC says it's unclear what happens to these bills once the protection expires. Paying what you can until the holidays just rolls the balance into the new year. So if you're in Los Angeles and behind, ask LADWP for a breakdown of your bill and get any zero-interest agreement in writing. Look at Level Pay, which averages costs over twelve months, and if you're a low-income senior or household, ask about Lifeline or EZ Save.
One small favor. If this show has helped you make sense of your own bill, leave Power Bill a rating and a short review in your podcast app. That's how other households find us.
On the calendar: Appalachian Power briefs due November 24 and an order by January 15, two BGE filings in front of Maryland regulators, and the LADWP board's decision on pausing shutoffs. Links to all of today's reporting are in the show notes. Power Bill is a Lantern Podcast. Talk to you tomorrow.