Central, Eastern KY power customers to see bills jump as PSC approves another hike
Residential power rates across much of Central and Eastern Kentucky are set to rise next month after state regulators signed off on a base-rate increase East Kentucky Power Cooperative says it needs to offset inflation and match higher interest rates.
Average residential customers should expect to see just under $5 tacked onto their monthly bills in May. A modified settlement agreement between EKPC, Nucor steel manufacturing and the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office will generate an extra $63.7 million for the company, nearly 6% more revenue for the member-owned cooperative as it embarks on a more than $2 billion new-generation development spree.
The Kentucky Public Service Commission denied proposed changes to the company’s investment model that would have required it to return earnings to customers but ask for additional rate increases if profit margins fell behind. That symmetrical earnings mechanism can pave the way for automatic, behind-the-scenes power bill increases.
Instead, EKPC will operate under a modified generation maintenance tracker that gives the PSC continued control over even menial rate adjustments. Recent patterns suggest the company “is more likely to collect from its customers than to issue a refund,” the commission said.
Winchester-based EKPC is a generation and transmission electric utility that provides wholesale power to 16 distribution cooperatives that serve 1.1 million Kentuckians across much of the central part of the state, from the outskirts of Cincinnati in Boone County to Wayne County south of Somerset.
In 2024, the company began investing in an effort to add another 2,000 megawatts to its generation portfolio by building 13 new natural gas-fired units at new and existing power plants and convert 1,700 megawatts of coal generation capacity at five units to burn either coal or gas.
Meanwhile, the company is doubling down on its investment in solar energy, with two new planned facilities.
In November, the PSC approved of a separate rate model for new prospective data center customers, which the cooperative hopes to attract amid Kentucky’s push to bring tech firms in the commonwealth.
The latest increase, the first base-rate hike since 2021, will pass through to its owner-member cooperatives, which have filed separate requests the PSC said it will grant in the coming days.
A spokesperson for the company said officials are still reviewing the order.
Power bills have been on the rise across the U.S. since 2020, up as much as 34% since then, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Bluegrass State’s rate increases remain below the national average, but Eastern Kentucky customers are paying some of the highest rates in the state.
Last month, regulators signed off on a 6% Kentucky Power base-rate increase, down from the 15% the American Electric Power Inc.-owned company initially sought. Meanwhile, other basic utilities in the rural, impoverished area of the state, are also growing more expensive.
