Mon Power Bills To Increase In March If PSC Approves Settlement

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect amount of the monthly increase.

Thanks to a settlement reached Wednesday, Mon Power customers will pay a smaller monthly increase than originally proposed, starting in March.

The average Mon Power residential electricity user will pay about $3.77 more a month starting on March 27, if the West Virginia Public Service Commission approves the deal.

That’s less than half the increase the company proposed. The company also wanted it to take effect on Jan. 1.

It will take electricity users three years to pay off Mon Power’s fuel costs of $255 million, but that lowers the monthly cost from paying it all off at once.

As part of the settlement, the company agreed to review its coal management practices. 

PSC testimony showed that Mon Power acquired more coal than it could safely store at its two West Virginia power plants. It had to store some off site or burn it when power was not needed.

PSC testimony also showed that Mon Power incurred a $40.5 million performance penalty for the failure of one of its coal units at the Harrison Power Station to operate during last December’s Winter Storm Elliott. The company has said other performance bonuses resulted in a net benefit of $10 million to electricity customers.