AEP customers will see their utility rates go up soon, but not as much as they could have. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approved an increase in rates of $85 million a year.
That is close to half of the $174 million that Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) requested. I&M says the increase will cost residential customers about 13% more each month. That works out to about an additional $12 a month if they use an average of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of power.
"We understand these are difficult economic times for our customers, so we do not take this lightly," said Paul Chodak III, I&M president and chief operating officer. "While we have worked extremely hard over the years to cut costs internally, we reached the point that cutting further would impact our ability to provide safe, reliable power, which we know is so important to our customers. A rate increase was pivotal to ensure I&M can continue to provide the reliable service our customers enjoy."
The company has 30 days to respond to the commission's order and provide details on what rate increases its customers can expect.
I&M serves nearly 180,000 electric customers in northeastern Indiana.
