RICHMOND — Appalachian Power Company will implement an interim fuel rate increase on September 1, 2007. The State Corporation Commission (SCC) has scheduled a public hearing for November 8, 2007, to receive comments on the company’s request to increase its fuel factor by 4.7 percent.

The request involves the portion of the monthly utility bill that recovers the cost of fuel used to generate electricity and potential credits against fuel expenses. By law, interim rates are temporary until the SCC issues a final order setting the company’s fuel factor.

Appalachian Power filed the application to revise its fuel factor on July 16, 2007. The company seeks $44.5 million in additional fuel rate revenue over a 16-month period beginning September 1 and ending December 31, 2008.

A public hearing on the request is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Thursday, November 8, 2007. It will be held in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, in downtown Richmond. Any person wishing to comment at the hearing should arrive early and notify the SCC bailiff.

Written comments on the application must be submitted by October 15, 2007. 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-2007-00067.

Interested persons desiring to submit comments electronically may do so at the SCC’s website: www.scc.virginia.gov/case/. Click on the PUBLIC COMMENTS/NOTICES link and then the SUBMIT COMMENTS button for case number PUE-2007-00067.

Appalachian Power also has pending before the SCC two other rate adjustment requests with established procedural schedules. In one request (case number PUE-2007-00068), the company seeks to recover a portion of the projected costs in conjunction with the planned construction of a clean-coal power plant in Mason County, West Virginia. In the second request (case number PUE-2007-00069), the company seeks to recover environmental and reliability costs incurred from October 2005 until September 2006.