FAIRMONT, W.Va. — FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison power companies released information Monday on a proposed rate case settlement that will be considered by the state Public Service Commission in a hearing set for Friday.
Mon Power spokesman Todd Meyers said the original $151 million proposed rate case would be reduced to $63 million in the proposed settlement.
“That would be a $15 million increase in the base rates and $48 million for vegetation (removal),” Meyers said.
The average customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month would see an increase of nearly $7.00-a-month from $92.62 to $99.52, or about 23 cents a day. The original proposal would have raised monthly bills by about $14.00 a month.
“We appreciate the hard work and compromise of all the parties in reaching this agreement,” said Holly Kauffman, president of FirstEnergy’s West Virginia operations said in a company news release. “The settlement provides us with the resources necessary to help ensure continued safe and reliable electric generation and delivery for our customers.”
The case includes reimbursement to the companies for cleanup costs from two massive 2012 storms, the derecho and Superstorm Sandy. Meyers said the tree-trimming program will be significant.
“Our goal (in five years) is to have all of those distribution lines trimmed out to specifications that are even more vigorous than we had before,” Meyers said.
Other parts of the settlement include payment for the recent purchase of the Harrison Power Station, improving the companies’ meter reading efforts and providing more funds for low-income customer assistance programs.
The increase could go into effect as early as Feb. 25, 2015 if approved by the PSC.
“It always helps ratepayers, our customers, whenever we don’t need to spend additional time, additional monies, to litigate these types of cases fully throughout,” Meyers said.
FirstEnergy said the settlement has been reached with the PSC staff, the state’s Consumer Advocate Division, the West Virginia Energy Users Group and Wal-Mart.
The PSC lowered rates for Mon Power and Potomac Edison customers in 2013 by 6.5 percent.
Mon Power serves about 385,500 customers in 34 West Virginia counties and Potomac Edison serves about 135,000 customers in the state’s Eastern Panhandle.