Greed vs. Kentucky's Needs: We've picked a side!

(Case Numbers: 2025-00113 KU and 2025-00114 LG&E)

This summer's CPCN (read more below) case was about getting permission to build. This rate case is about getting permission to bill! LG&E/KU's proposed plan (CPCN). This separate rate case is about giving them permission to bill you for their other spending, spending that usually does not carry a return on it. And, if they get their way now, they’ll be back again asking you to pay for those plants and coal upgrades, too.

The trick: LG&E is asking regulators to treat business costs as new investments. This allows them to charge you back and add a rate of return (a profit) on top. Normally, a business pays for its own routine costs (like maintenance and software upgrades) out of its profits. This encourages them to be efficient and keep costs down. 

• Expense: They use their money. They are incentivized to be efficient to protect their profits. This leads to lower rates.
• Capitalize: They use our money. They are incentivized to spend big to grow their profit base. This leads to higher rates.

LG&E/KU is trying to socialize all the risks and costs of doing business on to ratepayers, while privatizing all the profits for their shareholders. Hard working Kentuckians’ paychecks should not be used to fund their corporate expansion plans, or to pay for basic maintenance and business costs (plus a return on those costs).  It's like your landlord charging you for fixing a leaky roof, and then adding a 10% fee on top for the 'privilege' of having it repaired. LG&E wants a profit on top of every basic repair they make to their own equipment.

OUR MOST POWERFUL TOOL: YOUR VOICE. SHOW UP AND BE HEARD.

The LG&E/KU rate case will be decided by the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC). The PSC derives its power from the people—that's you. It is critical that the Commissioners see the faces of the people whose lives are impacted by their decisions. Your presence shows that ratepayers are watching and engaged.

Please join us and make your voice heard at a hearing near you:

• Louisville: Monday, September 8 at 5:00 pm ET
  • Location: Jefferson Community & Technical College, 1000 Community College Dr, Louisville, KY 40272.
• Madisonville: Monday, October 13 at 5:00 pm CT
  • Location: Hopkins County Fiscal Court, 56 North Main Street, Madisonville, KY 42431.
• Lexington: Tuesday, October 14 at 5:00 pm ET
  • Location: Bluegrass Community & Technical College, 164 Opportunity Way, Lexington, KY 40511 in the Keeneland Room.
• Middlesboro: Thursday, October 16 at 5:00 pm ET
  • Location: Middlesboro Community Center, 705 N. Petersborough Ave, Middlesboro, KY 40965.

What’s in this rate case?

1. Ratepayers Asked To Cover Their Cost of Doing Business! LG&E/KU is requesting that the costs of routine maintenance, repairs, and cybersecurity upgrades be passed on to ratepayers with a profit margin included.   
2. We Pay While Big Tech Plays! LG&E is asking its current Kentucky customers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to build new grid infrastructure for large corporate customers, like data centers. Under state law (KRS 278), the company must prove this expansion is "necessary" to provide "adequate" service to existing homes and businesses. This project is a growth strategy to attract new industry, not a necessity for us. This expansion is not about keeping our lights on; it is a corporate growth strategy to attract new business at the expense of every day Kentuckians already struggling to cover growing electric bills.
3. No Savings for Us! LG&E/KU spent $350 million on "smart meters" that allowed them to “reduce their contractor workforce for meter reading and field services by 71 percent and 51 percent, respectively.” Now they want us to pay them back for the meters plus a profit, while we see none of the savings. It's a "Double-Dip": Shareholders get the benefit of lower operating costs and a guaranteed profit stream from our bills. We get nothing but the higher bill.
4. They're making the problem worse, then charging us for the damage. LG&E/ KU wants to shield shareholders from all the financial risk related to climate change by asking us to pay higher rates for the increasing cost of storm damage and power outages. While also proposing to spend billions of dollars on new gas plants, which pollute the atmosphere and fuel the very climate instability that is causing the increase in destructive storms. 

What should LG&E/KU be prioritizing instead?

1. True Affordability. Find efficiencies that lower bills, not just cut their costs. If we pay for automation and programs that improve efficiency and reduce energy waste, we should see the savings.
2. Honest Leadership. Acknowledge the climate crisis. Stop asking us to pay to protect the grid from storms while also demanding more money from customers to build new gas plants and make new investments in old expensive coal plants that are ready for retirement and replacement, both of which make those storms worse.
3. Real Reliability, Not Corporate Expansion. Prioritize hardening the grid against existing storm threats for current customers, not building new grid for speculative data centers.
   
    

Here’s the story:
Corporate energy giant PPL Corporation—parent company of Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities (KU)—is pushing a $3.7 billion expansion, justifying it as needed to meet electricity demand from data centers and industrial projects. But instead of making big corporations pay their fair share, PPL wants Kentucky families to foot the bill through higher rates.

The Kentucky Public Service Commission will decide by November 2025 whether to approve this corporate handout. Should struggling Kentucky families bankroll PPL’s profits and subsidize industrial growth? We say no—it’s time for corporations and big energy users to pay their own way.

Before this $3.7 billion plan can move forward, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) must grant what’s called a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN)—a regulatory greenlight that essentially determines whether this massive investment is justified, who benefits, and who pays. The CPCN process is supposed to protect the public interest, not rubber-stamp corporate giveaways. Below, we break down how this approval works—and why Kentuckians should demand accountability before utilities lock us into decades of higher bills and polluting energy.

A CPCN is official approval from the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) allowing utilities like LG&E/KU to build or expand major energy projects (e.g., power plants, transmission lines, or renewable energy infrastructure). It ensures the project is necessary, cost-effective, and in the public’s best interest before customers pay for it through higher rates. A CPCN is like a building permit for utilities—it’s the state’s way of checking if a project is worth your money. Should Kentuckians pay for a highway expansion you don’t need? The CPCN process helps avoid that for energy projects.

Confused by all the utility jargon? Our FAQ document explains the terms in easy to understand language.
 

• Impacts Your Wallet: CPCN decisions affect future electricity rates—approving unnecessary projects raise bills.
• Reliability & Safety: Projects approved via CPCN determine whether your lights stay on during storms or extreme demand.
• Environmental & Health Impacts: New energy projects (e.g., gas plants vs. renewables) affect air quality, water, and climate.
• Community Influence: The PSC considers public input—this is a rare chance to voice concerns or support.

• Corporate energy giant PPL Corporation—parent company of LG&E and KU—could force Kentucky families to bankroll a multi-billion dollar gamble on data centers that may never come, while keeping all the profits for themselves.
• Kentucky’s captive ratepayers face even greater risk when third parties—like the real estate investors currently developing both announced data centers without secured tenants—control contracts with LG&E/KU. These speculative arrangements muddy accountability between our monopoly utility and the eventual hyperscale energy users. Direct negotiations between LG&E/KU and actual tenants must be required—and ratepayers deserve proof it’s happening.
• PPL’s shareholders—not Kentucky workers—will pocket the profits if these risky data centers succeed. Meanwhile, we’re stuck paying for grid expansions that benefit California tech giants who bring 10s of jobs instead of thousands. Kentucky should incentivize real employers—not subsidize PPL’s speculation.
• PPL shareholders stand to gain all the financial benefits from these risky grid expansions, yet they want to force Kentucky families - through LG&E/KU's rate base - to pay for infrastructure supporting Silicon Valley's unprecedented 60% energy demand increase. Not one penny of this speculative investment should be charged to struggling Kentucky households when the profits flow entirely to PPL.
• While other states get cheaper, clean energy, PPL is forcing Kentucky to accept dirty, expensive fossil fuels—sacrificing our health to pad their profits.
  The PSC must demand PPL use clean, affordable energy for these mega-projects—and force them to explain why they’d choose pollution over protecting Kentucky families.
• The Kentucky PSC must require LG&E/KU to join an RTO immediately - especially now as massive data centers threaten to overwhelm our grid. Without RTO membership, Kentucky families remain last in line during emergencies while PPL pockets the savings from avoiding regional grid investments.
• Winter Storm Elliott exposed Kentucky’s dangerous isolation. LG&E/KU nearly imposed rolling blackouts, relying on desperate public pleas to avoid catastrophe. Without an RTO, Kentucky had no backup plan—leaving families last in line for emergency power. While neighboring states benefit from regional coordination, PPL prioritizes profits over protection, refusing overdue grid upgrades. Shareholders win, while Kentuckians freeze.
• Winter Storm Elliott proved how dangerous our isolation is. LG&E/KU’s grid came within hours of mandatory rolling blackouts—admitting publicly that only emergency conservation measures prevented them. Without RTO coordination, Kentucky had no backup plan beyond begging families to turn down thermostats in subzero temperatures. Kentucky families were last in line for emergency power because we lack regional protections. An RTO would both prioritize ratepayers during crises and force PPL to make overdue grid upgrades. While utilities in every surrounding state participate in RTOs, PPL continues avoiding this basic consumer protection to save money. Their obstruction leaves Kentucky uniquely vulnerable- all so shareholders don't have to pay their fair share for regional reliability.
   

Enough is enough. Kentucky families shouldn’t have to choose between putting groceries on the table and paying a soaring electric bill. We shouldn’t be forced to accept PPL’s rigged false choice between reliable energy and clean air and water.

The truth? PPL claims we can’t have both—only because admitting otherwise would cut into their profits.

The Proof: PPL’s Excuses Are a Scam

• Iowa (57% wind power in 2023): Has lower outage rates than Kentucky (U.S. EIA data) because they invested in modern transmission and storage—exactly what PPL refuses to do.
• Texas (Solar Saving the Grid): During 2023’s record heatwaves, solar and wind provided 30–40% of power when gas plants struggled (ERCOT). Their infamous 2021 blackout? Caused by frozen gas lines, not renewables.

The Real Problem: PPL is protecting shareholder profits by delaying clean energy. Are you an LG&E/KU customer who wants to help us organize?

We're building a team of volunteers across the service region to:
✍️ Join our op-ed team
🗣️ Help plan community meetings
📢 Inform neighbors about submitting comments to the PSC

We are especially looking for community members in these areas...
While most public meetings happen in larger cities, we're working to ensure every LG&E/KU customer can engage. We need local voices from:
Versailles, Hodgenville, Pineville, Horse Cave, Bardstown, Wilmore, Danville, LaGrange, Taylorsville, Mount Sterling, Bedford, Richmond, North Oldham, Central City, Paris, Carrollton, Nicholasville, Corbin, Lebanon, Flemingsburg, Simpsonville, Elizabethtown, Madisonville, Georgetown, Manchester, Maysville, Radcliff, London, Lawrenceburg, Harrodsburg, Milton, Greensburg, Morehead, Midway, Harlan.

Your power company exists to serve you. Let's make sure they remember that.