Kentucky Power says a decision earlier this year by state regulators may have contributed to widespread power outages earlier this month.
Severe thunderstorms the week of Aug. 11 to 18 resulted in the loss of electricity to more than 56,000 Kentucky Power customers.
In a filing to the Kentucky Public Service Commission Tuesday, the company said 60% of those were the result of trees falling on power lines.
The utility is asking the PSC to reconsider its February denial of an annual increase in what it could spend for its vegetation management program.
The company said the PSC’s order reduced those funds by $11 million this year.
Half the outages this month were near Hazard, where the company says the heavily forested, mountainous terrain makes it especially difficult to maintain reliable service.
The PSC has ordered an audit of Kentucky Power’s operations and management. The company’s customers pay some of the highest electricity bills in the state.
Sarah Lynch, a spokeswoman, said with a reversal of the earlier PSC decision, “Kentucky Power would be able to remove more trees outside of the rights-of-way each year without increasing annual costs to customers, allowing us to better control vegetation in the service area and increase reliability.”
Lynch said a rate impact to customers could be avoided with deferred tax liability credits.
The Kentucky PSC in February approved a rate increase for Kentucky Power customers. The average residential electricity customer saw, starting in March, a nearly 6% increase. Another 1% increase will follow next year.
That’s about half what the company originally sought. The average bill will increase less than $11 a month, compared to $27, which the company asked for last year.
In December, the commission approved Kentucky Power’s continued 50% ownership in the Mitchell coal plant near Moundsville, West Virginia. That raised customer bills another $2 a month.
Kentucky Power is requesting PSC approval to construct a new mechanical-draft cooling tower at Mitchell with its other co-owner, Wheeling Power.
They received a $51 million U.S. Department of Energy grant in June that will lower the project’s cost for customers. The average customer would pay $3.64 a month if the plan is approved.
In a separate filing last week, Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office says a TeraWulf data center project near Ashland could lower the cost of the Mitchell cooling tower for customers.
Also last week, the PSC approved an electricity contract for another TeraWulf data center project, in Hancock County in Western Kentucky.
