Remember when Mike Morris, CEO of American Electric Power, said this?

[he] said “I’m not a decoupler. If my revenues go down, they go down.”

The West Virginia arm of his utility is now asking for a series of rapid rate increases: 18.5 percent this year, 14.5 percent next year and 13.2 percent in 2011.

Why, pray tell?

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In part, because:

The company had predicted it would sell $248.5 million in power to other electric utilities between July 2008 and this June, but those sales have almost disappeared. Revenue generated from those sales — electricity unused by AEP customers — keeps rates down.

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So if AEP’s revenues go down, they go down. But then they file a three-year, double-digit rate increase to make up for lost ground. “Not a decoupler” indeed.