RICHMOND — The State Corporation Commission (SCC) will hold public hearings in Abingdon and Rocky Mount in November on a request by Appalachian Power to increase the base rate that recovers costs associated with the provision of generation and distribution services. The local hearings will give members of the public in Appalachian’s southwestern Virginia service territory more convenient locations to offer testimony as public witnesses.

Appalachian seeks an increase in base rates in the amount of $154 million. The proposed rate increase would raise the monthly bill of a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity from $91.49 to $107.14, an increase of $15.65 or 17.1 percent.

The hearing in Abingdon will be held on Wednesday, November 18, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Grand Hall of the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, 1 Partnership Circle at Exit 14 of Interstate 81.

The next local hearing will be in Rocky Mount on Thursday, November 19, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Franklin County High School auditorium at 700 Tanyard Road.

The evidentiary hearing will begin in Richmond on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, at 10 a.m. Public witness testimony will also be accepted at the beginning of this hearing in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building at 1300 East Main Street. Any person wishing to offer public witness testimony at any of these hearings should arrive early and sign in with the SCC bailiff.

The SCC will webcast the audio portion of the Richmond hearing via the Internet. Instructions for listening to the proceeding can be found on the SCC website at http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case.

Written comments on the proposal must be submitted by March 3, 2010. All correspondence should be sent to the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission, Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118, and refer to case number PUE-2009-00030.

Interested persons desiring to submit comments electronically may do so at the SCC’s website: http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case. Click on the PUBLIC COMMENTS/NOTICES link and then the SUBMIT COMMENTS button for case number PUE-2009-00030.

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Case Number PUE-2009-00030