Customer Choice in West Virginia
Despite approval of a plan to restructure the electric utility industry by the West Virginia Legislature, the introduction of customer choice in the state is at a standstill.

Several years ago, a broad group of interested parties began working together to develop a customer choice plan for the state. Parties to the plan included the Public Service Commission of West Virginia (PSC) Staff, the Consumer Advocate, industry, labor, AEP and others. The PSC approved the customer choice plan and took it to the Legislature, which passed a bill in 2000 authorizing its introduction.

The plan was put on hold until the 2001 session of the Legislature, when lawmakers were expected to change the state's tax laws to ensure that customer choice was tax revenue neutral, then pass a resolution giving the go ahead to implement the plan.

Since that time, though, many factors have combined to make legislators in West Virginia -- as well as elsewhere in the country -- wary of restructuring the industry. Lawmakers in the 2001 and 2002 sessions showed no interest in passing the enabling resolution to put customer choice in motion. They are not expected to do so in the 2003 session either, barring unforeseen circumstances.

Further, the PSC in July 2002 dismissed its pending rulemaking, which would have provided detailed rules and regulations governing competitive retail service in West Virginia. The Commission noted that should interest in customer choice resurface, it would reinstate proceedings to establish these rules.