Tuesday, March 21, 2017

AG opposes KU's full rate hike

How it will affect your KU bill
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A recommendation from Kentucky's top law enforcement official could save a large number of electricity users in Crittenden County several dollars on each month's utility bill.

Attorney General Andy Beshear announced last Thursday that his Office of Rate Intervention is recommending that the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) hold PPL Corp. sister utilities Kentucky Utilities Co. (KU) and Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) to approximately one-third of the increase requested in rate cases filed late last year. Local customers of KU will get a chance to weigh in on the proposed rate adjustment next month.

In November, the utilities filed an application with the PSC for a combined $210 million increase in annual revenues. KU is seeking $103.1 million of that. Beshear’s rate proposal incorporates the testimony of five experts, including an engineer, and asks the PSC to reduce the rate request by $142 million.

KU wants to double the basic service charge for customers, a charge commonly known as the meter fee, and slightly lower the charge per kilowatt hour (kWh). The request to restructure the rates would impact 516,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties, including hundreds of users in Marion and portions of rural Crittenden County.

The PSC will hold a public meeting in Madisonville at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 in the Byrnes Auditorium of the Hatley Building on the MCC campus. Persons wishing to comment on the proposed rate increase may do so at the public meetings, or written comments may be mailed to the PSC.

For more on this issue, see the March 16 printed issue of The Crittenden Press.