American Electric Pwr Requests 20% Rate Hike At Texas Utility
August 28 2009 - 2:35PM
Dow Jones News
American Electric Power Co.'s (AEP) Texas utility filed a
request Friday with state regulators to raise rates by about
20%.
AEP Southwestern Electric Power Co., or Swepco, is asking the
Texas' public utility commission for an additional $75 million
through rates for infrastructure, ongoing operations, increased
vegetation management and ongoing financing costs related to power
plant construction. If approved, the hike would be the utility's
first increase in base rates in more than 25 years.
The increase would raise rates for customers in Swepco's east
Texas service area by about 21.5%, or $16 a month for a typical
household. The increase would only be 7% for customers in north
Texas, since they're already paying higher rates, the utility
said.
Swepco is asking for the new rates to take effect next spring,
resulting in the same rates in both service areas.
"For many years, we have been able to absorb or offset these
kinds of non-fuel cost increases, but we have reached a point where
a rate increase is necessary," said Paul Chodak, Swepco's president
and chief operating officer.
The higher rates will allow Swepco to recover financing costs
for two power plant projects, the John W. Turk Jr. plant in
Arkansas and the J. Lamar Stall unit in Louisiana.
-By Mark Peters, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2457;
mark.peters@dowjones.com