It’s always jarring when those representing corporations on which so many of us depend display their total disconnect from the real world most of us must navigate. Those of us who have to budget for utility payments — whether it be for a household or an industrial facility — could only laugh at Appalachian Power President and CEO Aaron Walker’s assessment of a 72% increase in residential customers’ rates since 2018.

“I don’t think I’d say substantial. I don’t know what you mean by substantial,” he said during a West Virginia Public Service Commission hearing this week.

Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power, subsidiaries of American Electric Power, have requested what amounts to a $250.5 million rate increase that would impact 460,000 customers. That would be another 13.54% increase for the average residential customer.

While Walker claimed the two companies had not had a BASE electric rate increase since 2018, the PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division countered with data that showed there have been increases amounting to 72% for residential customers over that time (and that is before factoring in the increase being requested). For industrial customers, the requested change would add up to a 64.63% increase in rates since March 2019.

Such a move would put Appalachian Power/Wheeling Power’s industrial rates at a woeful 39th among all U.S. states based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

Walker even let slip that he understands “constant adjustments to rates can be a challenge” to customers. For many of the customers in the area these two companies cover, “challenge” is an understatement when discussing that kind of hit to their monthly budget. The 4,241 letters of protest the PSC has received on this case can likely attest to that.

Meanwhile, Barry Naum, an attorney for the West Virginia Energy Users Group, asked Walker to take a look at the companies’ 2025 first quarter earnings report, which indicated $54 billion of forecasted capital for the years 2025 to 2029.

“Underneath that, it says no incremental equity is needed to fund this plan,” Naum said. “So, AEP has sufficient capital already on hand to fund $54 billion of forecasted expenditures through 2029?”

Walker said that is the case.

Something has got to give. The PSC has suspended the proposed rate increase until Aug. 28 while it sorts out what is, indeed, a substantial request that would further burden families and companies already struggling to pay their bills.

It appears now as though their first task might be asking Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power to take another look at their math. After all, if their calculations were made by those who don’t understand even that 72% is “substantial,” what else are they getting wrong for their customers?