Emergency legislation signed by Beshear will lower power bills in EKY
Eastern Kentucky power bills will be a bit lower than expected following frigid temperatures in January that drove up fuel costs across the region.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved its first fuel surcharge stability case since Gov. Andy Beshear signed emergency legislation last week allowing utilities to spread higher-than-normal fuel costs over several months instead of making them due all at once.
About $5 million that Kentucky Power customers would have had to pay in March will instead be collected in smaller chunks during the May, June and July billing cycles, according to an order issued Tuesday by the commission, a three-person regulatory agency.
Kentucky Power said its proposal would lower the average residential customer’s bill by $11 next month.
The move comes as many in Kentucky, especially in the eastern reaches of the state, face growing energy bills to power their homes.
Senate Bill 172, sponsored by Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, marked the first piece of legislation Beshear signed into law during the 2026 legislative session. The bill took effect immediately, partially in response to the severe, deadly cold that blanketed the commonwealth in late January and early February.
Utility bills in Kentucky fluctuate slightly based on the price companies and co-ops pay to burn natural gas or coal or purchase energy from the grid. Temperatures swings drive up demand, destabilizing the markets and leading to higher downstream costs on customers.
The smoothing-out maneuver approved by the General Assembly and OK’d by the PSC on Tuesday has happened before; Kentucky Power got the PSC’s permission to spread out several months of fuel-adjusted rates in early 2022 in response to concerns raised with the commission about monthly bill volatility.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, has said the new law clarifies for utilities that asking for spread-out rates is an easy option to keep costs down for customers.
The PSC cited the law in its order granting Kentucky Power’s request, noting that the law makes it “critical that any measure to help control the volatility of electric utility rates be enacted as soon as possible to give relief to the ratepayers of the commonwealth.”
Kentucky Power is pursuing a concurrent base rate increase that would ramp up average residential power bills by a little more than 12% over the next three years. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has taken the rare position that the PSC should deny the rate increase outright, citing repeated base rate increases sought in recent years by the shareholder-owned company.
A spokesperson for the company expressed appreciation for the PSC working quickly to approve the deferred fuel costs, which will provide immediate relief to customers during winter months. The company had asked the commission to rule on their proposal by Tuesday in order to reflect the change in next month’s bills.
“Supporting customers through periods of higher energy use remains a priority, and we will continue working to provide tools, programs and flexible options to help manage bills,” Sarah Nusbaum, corporate communications manager for Kentucky Power, told the Herald-Leader.
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 3:45 PM.
