State regulators have approved a rate increase for Old Dominion Power customers that will raise the average residential bill by $17.63, or 11.2%, to $175.51 effective Feb. 1.
Old Dominion Power says an average residential customer uses 1,143 kilowatt-hours per month.
The company provides electric service to about 28,000 Virginia customers in Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott and Wise counties. A subsidiary of Kentucky Utilities, it is the smallest investor-owned utility in Virginia.
The rate increase that the Virginia State Corporation Commission approved last week is essentially the same as a compromise plan that Old Dominion and SCC staff put forward in November to allow the utility to earn an additional $8.3 million of revenue each year, down from the company’s original ask of $9.4 million.
Its residential basic service charge, a fixed fee on customer bills, will remain $12 instead of increasing to $15.
The utility has said it needs to provide a fair rate of return to its shareholders while continuing to invest $1.85 billion in capital projects, including $349 million toward building a 621-megawatt natural gas plant in Louisville, Kentucky, and $129 million toward deploying advanced electricity meters in Virginia.