Aug. 15--Seven months after AEP-PSO's $81.4 million rate increase took effect, the utility asked for state approval Friday for a $30 million annual rider to be added to electric bills.

Company spokesman Stan Whiteford said the proposed rider is for unrecovered reliability investments made since the rate case. The request covers a portion of the $196 million reportedly spent on poles, wire, switches, substations, transmission towers and other improvements during that period, according to the release.

The rider also may help delay or minimize the next rate case, he added.

"We're trying to streamline that process," Whiteford said. "It doesn't take the place of one (rate case), but it would likely postpone the time in which we have to do that."

American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma filed the proposed increase with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which does not set a timeline for this rider request. Commission spokesman Matt Skinner said the proposal will go through the administrative law judge hearing process -- the same as rate cases.

The utility hopes to gain state approval by early next year. If approved, the rider would add $3.79 to the bill of an average customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours monthly, Whiteford estimated.

The net effect to AEP-PSO customers would drop to approximately $2.40 by mid-2010, the spokesman said. A 64-cent average monthly rider for construction of peaker units last year will go off the bills in October, while another rider, costing

71 cents monthly to pay for purchase of a Lawton plant, drops off in the middle of 2010, according to reports.

"It will directly benefit all of PSO's customers," Whiteford said. "If we're able to invest in a more timely manner, we can invest more that's going to support the system -- improve reliability."

Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General Bill Humes, who regularly takes part in reviewing AEP-PSO's requested increases, has held some preliminary talks with the utility about the rider.

"The Attorney General's Office is mindful of the fact they just had a pretty sizable rate increase, and we're mindful of the economy," Humes said. "We'll be doing everything we can to take a hard look at it and make sure they're not getting excessive rates of any sort."

Reactions among AEP-PSO's 525,000 customers statewide may be mixed, too, despite several fuel-cost reductions in the past year. A recent J.D. Power and Associates survey ranked AEP-PSO 25th out of 27 Southern midsize utilities.

One problem was the company's pricing volatility.