The Virginia State Corporation Commission has scheduled a second public hearing on Appalachian Power's latest request for a fuel factor fee increase.

The hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 1 in Snyder Auditorium on the campus of Wytheville Community College.

Appalachian Power wants to increase a portion of customers' electric bills to pay for the utility's higher than anticipated costs for generating power.

The SCC said it added the hearing to one already set for Richmond on June 30 to provide a more convenient location for testimony by customers of Appalachian Power in Southwest Virginia. People who want to address the commission should arrive early and notify the SCC's bailiff.

Public witnesses are sworn in and are subject to cross-examination.

By law, electric utilities are entitled to pass along to customers the costs of electricity-generating fuel and to annually file to adjust the associated fuel factor.

According to the SCC, the utility's latest fuel factor request, filed May 15, has the potential to increase by 13 percent the monthly bill of a typical residential customer.

But Appalachian has proposed a billing strategy that would extend the recovery of fuel costs through August 2010 and thus limit the average monthly increase in residential electricity bills to about 9.6 percent.

Written comments on the fuel rate request are being accepted until June 23. Correspondence should be mailed to the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission, Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, VA 23218-2118, and refer to case number PUE-2009-00038.

Comments can be submitted electronically at www.scc.virginia.gov/case. Click on the public "comments/notices" link and then the "submit comments" button for case number PUE-2009-00038.

-- Duncan Adams

Spotsylvania Co.

Lightning strike at ballfield kills boy

FREDERICKSBURG -- Police say a 12-year-old Spotsylvania County boy died and another boy was critically injured after lightning struck as they were playing catch.

The incident occurred Wednesday on a ballfield south of Fredericksburg as severe storms battered parts of Virginia, flooding roads and knocking out power.

Spotsylvania County sheriff's 1st Sgt. Liz Scott said umpires had halted a baseball game because of the weather and ordered participants off the field. But Chelal Matos and an 11-year-old teammate remained and were playing catch under parents' supervision.

Scott says lightning hit Matos and the charge transferred to the other boy.

She says the 11-year-old, who wasn't identified, was in critical condition at a Richmond hospital.

-- Associated Press