Northern Kentucky utility gets approval to increase monthly electric rates 10%
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rate hike for Duke Energy Kentucky Inc. will likely raise average monthly bills to $137.15.
- Increase in rates yields about $40.69 million to fund grid improvements and capacity.
- Other utilities LG&E and KU seek larger rate hikes and seek public comment.
Monthly bills for Kentucky’s Duke Energy customers are about to get a little more pricey.
The Public Service Commission approved a requested rate increase that will produce additional revenues for Duke Energy Kentucky Inc., which largely serves 152,600 electricity customers in Cincinnati’s suburbs and Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Campbell, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton.
Increased rates mean average residential customers could see an increase of $12.50, making the average monthly bill go up about 10% to $137.15. Those rates are anticipated to produce more than $40.69 million in revenues for Duke.
Officials anticipate using the additional revenue for making improvements to its grid and to add more service as demand grows.
The PSC-approved rates are less than what Duke originally requested in an application submitted to the utility regulators in December 2024. In it, the utility company requested authorization for a 15% increase in rates that would result in about $70 million in revenue.
In its application, Duke said its rate of return on its electric operations was “inadequate to enable the Company to continue providing safe, reasonable, and reliable service to its customers and is insufficient to afford Duke Energy Kentucky a reasonable opportunity to earn a fair return on its investment property that is used to provide such service while attracting necessary capital at reasonable rates.”
The rate increase approved Oct. 2 is significantly less than requested, but is an increase nonetheless and Duke isn’t the only utility in the commonwealth to request one.
Next week, Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities will host its third public hearing related to its rate increases.
Kentucky’s Public Service Commission will hear from Lexington residents Oct. 14 at Bluegrass Community & Technical College in the Keeneland Room at 5 p.m.
Comments can be submitted online by clicking here, emailed to psc.comment@ky.gov, or mailed to 211 Sower Blvd., Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.
Feedback should include the customer’s name, address and case number: 2025-00114 for LG&E increases and 2025-00113 for KU increases.
Rate adjustments proposed by the commonwealth’s largest utility for the first time in five years could increase monthly LG&E bills by $11 and KU bills by $18, according to applications asking to increase rates.
Those rates are based on forecasts showing the company would need to charge its customers more to pay for upgrades to infrastructure and to cover for the rising costs of services triggered by severe weather events among other economic factors.
If approved, rate adjustments won’t go into effect until after Jan. 1, 2026, and it may take several years for the utilities to make proposed infrastructure upgrades across the state.
KU is requesting through its rate adjustments an increase of approximately $226 million per year in its electric revenue, while LG&E is requesting an increase of nearly $105 million per year in its electric revenue and almost $60 million per year in its gas revenue.
The average monthly electricity bill for residential customers in Fayette County where KU is the dominant provider is about $137.25, according to FindEnergy, a consumer energy data website. Though bills per month fluctuate with seasons and other factors, a Fayette County household is likely paying about $1,645 per year for electricity.
If the rate adjustments are approved, and monthly KU electric bills increase to about $155.40 per month, Fayette County residents would spend almost $1,865 per year on electricity.
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