Appalachian Power is asking Virginia regulators for permission to charge customers to recover money it has spent on renewable energy projects and on complying with environmental laws.
The average residential customer’s monthly bill would go up by $6.63, or about 3.8%, if the State Corporation Commission approves Appalachian’s requests, according to documents recently filed with the SCC. The increase would not occur before March 1, 2026.
The proposal comes as the average Appalachian monthly bill has risen by about $50 since July 2022 to about $174 today.
Separately, Appalachian is asking for permission to continue evaluating its Joshua Falls property in Campbell County for a potential small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR. Such reactors are designed to be smaller than traditional nuclear reactors, but no commercial SMR has been deployed in the U.S.
The SCC’s approval is necessary before Appalachian can ask permission to charge customers for related SMR project development costs. The utility has not shared a dollar figure that it expects to recover, but a 2024 state law caps SMR project cost recovery at $125 million.
“These filings reflect the company’s commitment to a sustainable and reliable energy future for Virginia,” Appalachian Power said in a news release last week.
The proposed $6.63 average bill increase would come from two requests.
One would allow Appalachian to recover $68.9 million in costs associated with renewable energy projects that are either making electricity now or will come online between March 2026 and February 2027. It would raise the average residential monthly bill by $4.36.
The other would recover the $60.6 million the utility spent ensuring that its coal and natural gas power plants comply with state and federal environmental regulations. It would add $2.27 to the average residential bill, according to the company’s filings.
The SCC could approve or deny the requests or approve lower revenue amounts than what Appalachian requested.
Looking further into the future, Appalachian told regulators that it wants to add a solar project in Wise County, a battery energy storage system in Wythe County and a wind project in Illinois to its renewable energy portfolio.
New renewable projects on the horizon
Appalachian, which has about 540,000 customers in Western Virginia, is required to update the SCC on its renewable energy plans each year.
It’s a mandate of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which also instructs Appalachian Power to achieve a carbon-free energy portfolio by 2050.
Under the VCEA, the utility must acquire or purchase the use of wind, solar and battery energy storage. Appalachian said that the projects for which it seeks approval are needed for the utility to comply with the VCEA.
Energy storage systems store electricity during periods of low demand, when it’s cheaper to purchase, and deploy it during periods of high demand, when it would otherwise be more expensive to produce, or during outages.
Appalachian wants to operate a Wythe County battery energy storage system that could provide 52 megawatts of power for up to four hours.
The system is under development on 8 acres of land at the same location as Wythe County Solar, at 669 Electric Lane in Max Meadows, according to the developer, RWE. It’s slated to begin operating in mid-2027.
Appalachian already has received approval for a battery energy storage system on its Glade-Whitetop circuit in Grayson and Smyth counties that would be able to deliver 7.5 megawatts of energy for up to four hours.
Furthermore, Appalachian told regulators that it plans to purchase electricity for 28 years from the 7.5-megawatt HCE Collier Solar project in Wise County once that facility begins operating in May 2027.
And it said it hopes to acquire the 255-megawatt Livingston Wind power plant in Illinois, which is scheduled to begin operation in 2029.
The Illinois wind project qualifies for compliance with Virginia’s environmental mandate because it’s located within the region served by PJM, the organization that manages the wholesale electricity market for Virginia, 12 other states and Washington, D.C.
Two of three previous solar power purchase plans canceled
Appalachian also updated regulators on the status of three solar projects from which it previously said it would purchase electricity.
Its plan to purchase power over 20 years from the 5-megawatt Elliott Solar facility in Tazewell County continues with an expected operating date of Dec. 1.
But Appalachian no longer plans to buy electricity from the 150-megawatt County Line Solar facility in Charlotte County and the 80-megawatt 7 Bridges Solar facility in Mecklenburg County.
County Line Solar’s developer, Competitive Ventures, withdrew the project from the queue to connect to the electric grid after a study showed a larger transmission line would be needed to hook up it and other projects.
A spokesperson for Competitive Ventures told Cardinal News in March that the company still plans to move forward and estimates construction could begin in 2028. Earlier this month, the Mecklenburg County Board of Supervisors voted 8-1 to reject 7 Bridges Solar, according to The Mecklenburg Sun newspaper.
