
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 24, 1995                   TAG: 9503240111
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

REGULATORS TO TAKE UP APCO-BEDFORD DISPUTE

A dispute between Appalachian Power Co. and the city of Bedford's municipally owned electric utility will go to a hearing before the State Corporation Commission on May 1. The issue is which of the two should provide electricity to Georgia-Pacific Corp.'s paper mill expansion at Big Island.

The $100 million-plus expansion in Bedford County will increase Georgia-Pacific's power usage by 70 percent, according to Apco spokesman Don Johnson.

Apco has supplied power to the Big Island mill for more than 35 years, but Bedford contends that Apco has been doing so illegally. A 1977 map that was approved by the SCC puts the Big Island mill in Bedford's service area.

Apco wants the SCC to rule that the Roanoke-based utility has had the right to serve the mill since 1959, that Apco is entitled to serve the increased needs of the mill, and that the city's service area and related maps be amended to show the mill in Apco's service territory.

Bedford has contested Apco's request, saying such a ruling would deprive the city utility of a major customer. The city acknowledges that Apco has been serving the mill but says the city also has provided limited service to the mill since the 1940s, according to the SCC hearing order. The law, the city argues, says that Apco must have the city's permission to serve a customer in the city's service area.

The Bedford County Board of Supervisors has sent a resolution to the commission urging a quick ruling on the dispute, and both Apco and the city have urged the SCC to act as soon as possible.

Apco's Johnson said that Georgia-Pacific has written a letter supporting Apco as the power supplier to the Big Island mill, saying the company has provided the mill with reliable service at competitive rates over the years.

The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. in the commission's second-floor courtroom in the Tyler Building at 1300 E. Main St., Richmond. Anyone wanting to participate must contact the commission before April 21.

by CNB