West Virginia · electric utility
Appalachian Power (APCo) regulated rate & rate increases
Appalachian Power (APCo) is a American Electric Power (AEP) utility serving southern and central West Virginia (the Charleston metro and southern counties) (about 460,000 customers). Appalachian Power is headquartered in Charleston and serves nearly a million customers across West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee combined; in 2024 it sought a roughly 17% base-rate increase. (source)
Appalachian Power (APCo) customer service & quick facts
The official ways to reach Appalachian Power (APCo) for outages, billing, and account help. RateWatchdog is independent and not affiliated with Appalachian Power (APCo) — these are the utility's own channels.
- Customer service
- 1-800-982-4237
- Pay your bill
- Pay Appalachian Power (APCo) bill online →
- Start, stop, or move service
- Start / stop service →
Verified · confirm on Appalachian Power (APCo)'s site
No supplier to shop in West Virginia
West Virginia doesn't offer residential electric choice, so there's no third-party supplier to compare against — your rate is the regulated rate the Public Service Commission of West Virginia approves. Instead of a bill audit, we track Appalachian Power (APCo)'s rate cases so you can see what's proposed and what it means for your bill.
Why West Virginia bills are rising →Is Appalachian Power (APCo) a monopoly? Can you switch?
For delivery, yes — it's a monopoly. Appalachian Power (APCo) is the only company that runs the poles and wires to homes in its territory, so you can't pick a different company to deliver your power. That part is a regulated monopoly: Appalachian Power (APCo), owned by American Electric Power (AEP), can only charge what the WV PSC approves in a rate case.
And in West Virginia, there's nothing to switch to. Unlike "shopping" states, West Virginia doesn't offer residential electric choice — no competitive supplier sells you the electricity. Appalachian Power (APCo) provides both the delivery and the power itself at a single regulated rate the WV PSC approves. Your one real lever is the rate case: that's where Appalachian Power (APCo)'s prices are set, and where you can file a public comment.
How often does Appalachian Power (APCo)'s power go out?
Federal reliability data, reported by the utility to the U.S. government. SAIDI is the average total time a customer is without power in a year; SAIFI is the average number of outages.
In 2024, including major storms
30 hr 32 min
without power, across about 3.3 outages
What the average customer actually experienced.
On a typical day (storms excluded)
9 hr 36 min
without power, across about 2.5 outages
Normal operations, with major event days removed.
For Appalachian Power (APCo), major storms drove roughly 69% of 2024's total outage time — the gap between the two numbers above is weather the utility couldn't fully control.
On normal-day reliability, Appalachian Power (APCo) is the 3rd-most reliable of the 4 West Virginia utilities we track — the range runs from 4 hr 13 min (Potomac Edison (West Virginia)) to 11 hr 1 min (Wheeling Power) of typical-day outage time per year.
Source: U.S. EIA Form EIA-861, 2024 reliability data (IEEE 1366 standard), for Appalachian Power Co. eia.gov →
Rate cases & increases
No active Appalachian Power (APCo) rate cases in our tracker right now. We monitor the WV PSC dockets — get an alert when one is filed. See why West Virginia bills are rising →
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