RICHMOND — The State Corporation Commission (SCC) has approved a revised rate settlement that means customers of Kentucky Utilities, doing business as Old Dominion Power Company in Virginia, will pay less for electricity than the company originally requested.

Under the Commission order, a rate increase totaling $6.65 million was approved. Kentucky Utilities originally requested an increase in rates in the amount of $9.3 million.

The company’s proposed rate increase would have raised the monthly bill of a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity from $82.27 per month to $96.73 per month, an increase of $14.46 or 17.58 percent. The request also included a $4 increase in the monthly customer charge, from $8 to $12.

The SCC approved rate increases the typical residential customer’s bill to $92.05 per month, an increase of $9.78 or 11.89 percent. This includes a $2 increase in the monthly customer charge. The new rates take effect on or after November 1, 2011.

The SCC found that the approved rate increase was justified by the higher costs reasonably incurred by the company to provide reliable service. This includes additional annual capital-related expenditures of approximately $6 million to comply with environmental requirements and placing a new generation plant into service. Kentucky Utilities also incurred $6 million in costs related to the December 2009 snow storm, which results in an amortized additional annual cost of approximately $1.2 million.

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Case Number PUE-2011-00013