Kentucky American Water customers will see a monthly bill increase
Kentucky American Water customers will see their monthly bills increase by almost $7 after a rate increase was approved on Dec. 17.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state body responsible for regulating utilities, approved on Wednesday a more than 14% rate increase for residential Kentucky American Water customers. When the company applied for the rate increase in May, it asked for the new rates to go into effect seven months after filing, meaning customers will begin seeing the new rate this month.
Utility customers using approximately 3,940 gallons of water per month could see their monthly bills increase $6.82, from $44.08 to $50.90, according to a news release from the commission.
The approved residential rate increase means customers will be charged about $7.86 per 1,000 gallons of water they use. The water system’s commercial customers will be charged $8 per 1,000 gallons of water.
The Public Service Commission’s order also approved a $19.89 minimum bill for residential and commercial customers.
The rate hike means the utility will increase its water revenues by more than 13%, or $18.2 million per year, significantly less than what it asked for in its May application.
In the request, Kentucky American Water wanted to increase water revenues by nearly 20% or $26.9 million.
Kentucky’s Attorney General Russell Coleman and Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government intervened in the utility’s rate increase request, arguing it was too high and the commission should set rates that keep the cost of living low.
It’s rare for the Public Service Commission to grant a utility company’s full requested rate increase.
The water system, which supplies Fayette and surrounding counties, is planning to use its increase in revenue to pay for infrastructure upgrades, including replacing aging pipes and upgrading storage tanks and pumping systems.
Rate payers will be notified by mail and online that their bills will be increasing.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average American family uses 400 gallons of water per day or about 12,000 gallons per month.
The utility provides water service to more than 139,500 customers across three divisions in 14 Kentucky counties, including Fayette, Jessamine, Clark, Bourbon, Scott, Franklin, Woodford and others. The last time the utility applied for a rate adjustment was 2023.
Kentucky American is a subsidiary of American Water, one of the country’s largest regulated and publicly traded water and wastewater utility companies.
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