CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Public Service Commission is scheduled to hear the specifics of an agreed to settlement Thursday morning involving the first-ever surcharge case from West Virginia American Water Company, the largest water utility in the state.
The PSC was set to begin a two-day evidentiary hearing on the case Wednesday afternoon but the parties involved reached some common ground causing PSC Chairman Mike Albert to announce a joint stipulation had been reached.
The water company’s case, as it was originally filed, was seeking an increase of about 89-cents a month on the average customer’s bill to finance $32.5 million in projects the company had planned for this year and 2017. The company says the surcharge would allow it to more quickly replace aging water lines than the current recovery process where utilities complete projects and then ask the PSC for rate increases to recover the cost.
PSC Chair Albert acknowledged Wednesday a surcharge was new territory for the commission and the case would set precedent.
“We’ll be setting a sort of format going forward and we want to get these right as well,” Albert said.
He also asked the parties involved to provide as many specifics as possible in a hearing scheduled for Thursday morning to discuss the proposed settlement.
“I realize that this involves projections and true-ups and that sort of thing but to the extent you can nail down numbers for us—we’d prefer not to get a black box on this sort of thing,” Albert said.
State Consumer Advocate Jackie Roberts told MetroNews Tuesday she was against the surcharge calling it a bad deal for consumers.
“We have a way of making rates in West Virginia that considers all the company’s investments and costs not just certain of them that are separated out for special recovery,” Roberts said. “I don’t think it’s wise for customers to pay up front for these kinds of investments when the utility is supposed to invest its own money and then some time later recover it from customers.”
The proposed settlement won’t be final until the PSC signs off on it.