Virginia customers of Apco to see rates reduced from Federal tax cut

ROANOKE, Va., July 30, 2018 – Starting with August bills, Appalachian Power will implement for Virginia customers a $50 million interim rate reduction associated with the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

                The federal tax changes were approved by Congress in late 2017 and reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective Jan. 1, 2018.

The interim rate will be effective until April 2019, at which point a permanent rate will be established. Corporate income taxes comprise only a portion of a typical customer’s bill. Residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) a month will see a reduction in their bills of approximately $4.83, once the interim rate is fully implemented.

When the interim rate is fully implemented, Appalachian Power estimates that a Virginia residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours/month will pay about 11.1 cents/kWh (or a total of $110.67), 17% below the national average cost for electricity of almost 13.4 cents* per kWh.

                Appalachian Power has 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee (as AEP Appalachian Power). It is a unit of American Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity and custom energy solutions to nearly 5.4 million customers in 11 states. AEP owns the nation’s largest electricity transmission system, a more than 40,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combines. AEP also operates 224,000 miles of distribution lines. AEP ranks among the nation’s largest generators of electricity, owning approximately 26,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP supplies 3,200 megawatts of renewable energy to customers.

*Commonwealth of Virginia, State Corporation Commission Combined Reports, Sept. 1, 2017, pg. 91

http://www.scc.virginia.gov/comm/reports/2017_veurcomb.pdf