A bipartisan effort to help Appalachian Power customers as they face rising monthly electric bills is progressing in the Virginia General Assembly as two bills with some overlap have each passed the House of Delegates and Senate.
In the Senate, SB 1076 would prohibit rate increases from December through February and would prohibit customers from being disconnected for nonpayment between July 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2026. It passed the Senate, 39-1, on Tuesday.
In the House, HB 2621 would, among other things, prohibit new rate increases until March 2026, would prohibit rate increases during November through February, and would require Appalachian to consider seasonal winter rates. It passed the House, 81-17, on Tuesday.
Both bills include language to allow Virginia’s second-largest electric utility to securitize costs associated with two coal power plants as well as repairs tied to Hurricane Helene. Securitization allows a company to package assets and large expenses into bonds that it sells to investors, with the goal of spreading costs out over a longer period of time.
The average Appalachian Power residential bill has risen about $50 in the past three years to approximately $174. Lawmakers during this General Assembly session have discussed hearing from constituents whose monthly bills have been hundreds of dollars above average, with some exceeding $1,000.
“The scariest thing that happens to everybody’s life in Southside and Southwest Virginia who’s under Apco territory is when they go to that mailbox and they open it up and there’s the Apco bill,” Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County and a co-patron of the proposed legislation, said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
“Because when they open that bill, they’re going to have to make decisions on whether they feed their children, put shoes on their feet, can make rent, pay the mortgage — what am I going to have to sacrifice in order to pay my electric bill so it doesn’t get turned off?”
Tuesday was the General Assembly’s crossover day, when bills passed by the House head to the Senate for consideration and vice versa.
Saying “the rates are too darn high,” Sen. Mark Peake, R-Lynchburg, the chief patron of the Senate bill, vowed that he and his fellow senators will work with their counterparts in the House to help Appalachian Power customers.
“We want to do more. We’re going to get with the House. … We will do more to bring rates down,” Peake said.
An Appalachian Power spokesperson said Tuesday that the company is working with the bills’ patrons and has no comment on the pending legislation, but Peake noted that when he brought his original bill focused just on securitization, he did so “with the consent of Apco, at their encouragement.”
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax County, voted for the bill but pointed out that the General Assembly passed legislation two years ago to give the State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities in Virginia, more control over setting electric rates.
The SCC most recently approved an Appalachian Power rate increase in November, allowing the utility to earn about one-tenth of the $95 million in additional annual revenue that it had requested.
“We’re here back now telling the SCC how to do its job again, basically decide how to set rates again,” Surovell said.
Sen. David Suetterlein, R-Roanoke County, cast the lone vote against the bill in the Senate. He said the securitization aspect is “overly broad” as written and said he thinks the legislation will ultimately increase customers’ bills in the future.
In the House, Del. Jason Ballard, R-Giles County, has called the legislation of which he is the chief patron the “most significant rate relief bill for Apco customers in many, many years.”
Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, was in the minority of delegates who voted against the bill. In floor discussion on Monday, he said that he agreed that “electric bills are just way too high” but said the bill in its current form contained too many new components.
“Until we have some assurances and know that every single part of this bill is going to be great for ratepayers, I cannot support it,” Rasoul said.
Ballard said on Facebook on Tuesday that as the House bill moves to the Senate, “I’m hopeful it will receive continued success.”
“This bill has been a major work in progress, and I expect there will be more work on this legislation before it’s all said and done,” he said.