West Virginians across the state are struggling to afford to keep the lights on.
Over the past decade, electricity rates have climbed more than 50%, while household budgets have remained tight, leaving many families struggling to keep up with monthly bills.
Energy experts say one big reason is West Virginia’s heavy reliance on aging, coal-fired power plants.
Ted Boettner, a senior researcher with the Ohio River Valley Institute, said diversifying the state’s electric mix could help lower rates and retire coal plants that are too expensive to keep running.
“There is an inherent tension between wanting lower electricity rates and over‑relying on in‑state coal plants,” he said.
State lawmakers have doubled down on propping up the coal industry, keeping expensive coal plants online, and that tension has shaped energy policies in Charleston for years.
While lawmakers aren’t likely to move on from coal any time soon, here are four other ways they could help lower energy bills for West Virginians.
Subsidize low-income households
Over one-third of West Virginia households are energy-burdened, meaning they spend more than 6% of their income on electricity costs. Most of the affected households are considered low-income under federal guidelines.
To help, lawmakers could direct the Public Service Commission to create and oversee a low-income affordability program that subsidizes a portion of electric bills for eligible families.
Under this kind of program, households would apply once, document their income, and then receive a predictable discount on their monthly bill so they don’t pay more than a set share of what they earn.
West Virginia already uses a similar program, the Low Income Energy Assistance Program, that helps households with the cost of heating. But the program is federally funded, and the Trump administration is trying to end it.
But the Energy Affordability Program in New York, created in 2016, offers a different model. It provides a monthly discount for low-income families’ electric and gas bills, to keep their energy costs at or below 6% of household income and does not rely on federal funds to operate.
A West Virginia version could have the same goal to tie bills to what a family can afford, rather than just how much power they use.
Increase investment in energy efficiency
One of the simplest ways to lower electric bills is to help households use less energy in the first place.
West Virginia has consistently ranked near the bottom of energy-efficient states.
Boettner said one of the easiest things lawmakers can do to help lower electricity costs is pass legislation to boost energy efficiency in West Virginia.
“We really just completely stand out in energy efficiency,” he said. “A lot of it just has to do with the housing stock being incredibly old and inefficient.”
Over half of West Virginia’s houses were built before 1980. Older appliances, windows and air ducts can contribute to higher energy bills.
West Virginia already receives federal funding through the Department of Energy’s weatherization program to reduce energy costs for low-income families and seniors living in older homes. The state received $7 million last year for the program.
Lawmakers could expand that work by putting state money into weatherization and energy‑efficiency programs, so more households can upgrade insulation, seal leaky ducts and replace outdated appliances.
Many states have adopted statewide energy efficiency standards that help residents pay for insulation, appliance upgrades and other improvements.
Require large power users to help pay for the grid
Electricity demand is growing across the country, driven in part by large power-using projects like data centers. Data center construction can require expensive upgrades to power lines, substations and other infrastructure.
If utilities recover those costs from all customers, residential bills can increase even though households aren’t using more electricity.
And in West Virginia, lawmakers have passed legislation to make the state more attractive to future data center projects.
To help shield ratepayers from higher energy bills, several states have governed how utilities regulate large electricity loads from industrial users. Others have implemented tariffs or additional taxes.
Lawmakers could follow this approach by requiring utilities to implement them, based on a rate that state regulators set.
Emmett Pepper, policy director for Energy Efficient West Virginia, said Appalachian Power has already implemented its own tariff for large-load customers.
Appalachian Power and FirstEnergy, West Virginia’s two major electric utilities, together supply more than 80% of West Virginia’s electricity.
“It’s primarily designed to ensure that large energy users don’t cause utilities to build a bunch of new infrastructure and then go out of business a few years later, leaving the rest of the ratepayers stuck paying for it.”
Lower the cap on utility company profits
Utilities don’t actually decide how much profit they can make. Instead, state regulators determine the return utilities are allowed to earn on investments in power plants, transmission lines and other infrastructure.
In West Virginia, the Public Service Commission typically authorizes utilities to earn a return of about 10%. That means customer bills are designed to generate enough revenue for utilities to earn that return if regulators approve the costs.
Because utilities recover those costs through electric bills, even small changes to the approved return can affect what customers ultimately pay over time.
State lawmakers could require regulators to lower the return utilities are allowed to earn or adopt new standards for how those profits are calculated.
Pennsylvania legislators recently approved legislation that would lower the maximum return utilities can earn while also cutting about $1.7 billion in electricity-related taxes that appear on customers’ bills.
Pepper said lowering the allowed return could reduce costs for customers, but regulators also have to ensure utilities earn enough to maintain electric service.
“I think people just inherently understand they shouldn’t be getting extra profits for just providing a monopoly service,” he said.