Kentucky Power has asked the Kentucky Public Service Commission to rehear its recent decision on customer rates.
The Kentucky PSC’s Feb. 28 decision imposes “significant negative effects” on Kentucky Power’s financial health, the company said in a filing to the commission last week.
The average residential electricity customer will see a nearly 6% increase this year, followed by a 1% increase next year.
That’s about half what the company originally sought. Still, the settlement that the PSC approved could require the company to take a $17 million write-off in 2026.
Sarah Lynch, a Kentucky Power spokeswoman, said the remedy the company seeks wouldn’t change customer rates beyond what the commission already approved.
She said the issues could be resolved by applying up to $40 million in deferred tax credits. That could prevent the company from filing another rate increase before August 2028.
The Kentucky Power rate case generated widespread public opposition. The company’s original filing sought a 15% increase for residential customers.
Residents and local officials protested the plan at public hearings in Pikeville, Hazard and Ashland. Many called on the three-member PSC to reject any rate increase.
In its ruling last month, the commission said it understood community frustration over higher rates but said it had no legal basis for denying an increase outright.
State law allows for utilities to challenge PSC decisions that are unreasonable or unlawful.
Kentucky Power has about 162,000 customers in 20 eastern Kentucky counties.
The rate decision follows another PSC ruling in December allowing Kentucky Power to maintain its ownership of the Mitchell plant in West Virginia beyond 2028.
The commission is currently considering a plan by Kentucky Power to replace one of the two cooling towers at Mitchell. Both cases involve recovering expenses from customers.
Some public opposition to the rate increase was rooted in the company’s 2015 retirement of a coal-burning unit at the Big Sandy plant in Lawrence County.
Kentucky Power then acquired a 50% ownership stake in Mitchell, along with Wheeling Power.
Wheeling Power customers will share the $191 million expense of the cooling tower project.
