SCC sets fuel rate for Dominion
The State Corporation Commission has approved a new fuel rate requested by Dominion Virginia Power that will take effect on July 1. The SCC accepted a plan that will spread the higher costs for fuel over a two-year period instead of the normal one-year recovery period. Ratepayers are not charged the financing costs of spreading the payment over two years.
For the average residential customer, the fuel rate increase means the monthly bill for 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity will increase $4.86 from $103.91 to $108.77. If the full increase was recovered in one year, the monthly bill of a residential customer would increase $8.17 to $112.08.
According to Dominion Virginia Power, the increase was driven, for the most part, by rising fuel prices and the effect of last year’s hotter-than-normal summer and colder-than-normal winter.
The fuel rate is the portion of the electric bill that pays for the fuel used to generate electricity and the purchase of power from the wholesale market. Dominion Virginia Power is statutorily entitled to recover its prudently incurred fuel costs. This is a dollar-for-dollar recovery, and the company can make no profit on recovery of fuel expenses.
The fuel rate is reviewed annually by the SCC and re-set, as necessary, to reflect actual fuel expenses for the previous year and projected fuel expenses for the coming year.
Frank Nolen: Let the SCC set rates
Column by Frank Nolen
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In 2007 the General Assembly passed legislation that greatly reduced the ability of the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to set just and reasonable electric rates. The result has been a 60 percent increase in the electric rates paid by customers of the Appalachian Power Company and a 26 percent increase in rates for Dominion Virginia Power customers.
The 2007 legislature all but guaranteed the return on equity that Apco and Dominion can earn on investments, instead of leaving that decision up to the SCC based on expert testimony. It also allowed Apco and Dominion to be paid for new power plants through add-on rate riders as they are being built, instead of being paid through the general rates after we start receiving electricity from the new plant. And it allowed the power companies to impose other individual riders for specific costs, such as transmission or environmental compliance. The legislated return on equity and various rate riders combined are adding already to what we pay as customers, and in the future will add far more. Read more
State Corporation Commission joins Electronic Age
Unveils new website to offer electronic filing, payment services
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net
The State Corporation Commission has unveiled a new website – SCC eFile – the first of several steps to offer electronic filing and payment services for business entity transactions handled by the Clerk’s Office of the Commission. The newly redesigned SCC web site home page features this new electronic service offering and provides a more visible link to information from each of the Commission’s regulatory divisions. This is part of the Commission’s major initiative to make it easier and quicker for existing and new businesses to fulfill their corporate filing requirements, via the Internet.
Two of the most common and most critical business entity filings – registered agent changes and resignations – can now be completed electronically through the Commission’s web site. Once the transaction is correctly executed, the SCC eFile user will receive a real time acknowledgement message that the transaction has been successfully completed. Read more
Dominion Power rates to drop – slightly – effective Jan. 1
Staff Report
News Tips: freepress2@ntelos.net
Rates for Dominion Virginia Power customers will be reduced on Jan. 1, 2010, in accordance with changes approved by the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC). For the typical residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, the net result is a decrease in the monthly electric bill of 87 cents, or 0.8 percent, from $109.23 to $108.36.
The SCC ordered Dec. 16 that the interim fuel factor be reduced to 2.927 cents per kWh, which translates to a reduction of $3.83 per month for the typical residential customer. The reduction was based on data the company submitted on the continuing declines in prices for coal, natural gas and other fuel used to generate electricity.
The fuel factor also was reduced in July and October 2009. The three adjustments result in reducing the typical residential customer’s bill by a total of $9.66 per month. Read more
Webb notes concern over Dominion rate increase
Item by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Dominion Virginia Power customers could see increases in their monthly bills in the range of $15 to $20 per month. U.S. Sen. Jim Webb wants to know why.
Webb, D-Va., has written the Virginia State Corporation Commission to inquire into the requested rate increase from Dominion. In a letter dated Wednesday, Webb noted that his office has heard from many Virginia families concerned about the potential rate increase. Read more
Al Weed and Bobbie Joe Gardner: Customer alert on utilities and renewable power
Posted by afp on October 1, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Op-ed by Al Weed and Bobbie Joe Gardner
Earlier this year the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill requiring investor owned electric companies to notify their customers about the possibility of buying renewable power. In asking the utilities to do something innovative, the General Assembly has also given the power of choice to the utility companies rather than the citizens Recent filings with the State Corporation Commission by Dominion and Appalachian Power highlight this concern.
These two utilities, who together serve the majority of Virginia’s electricity customers, have recently announced that they will allow consumers to buy power from renewable sources. While each company is pricing this “green power” option differently, choosing the renewable option will mean a bigger electric bill – and more profits for the utilities.
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Filed under Blogs · Tagged with al weed, bobbie joe gardner, public policy virginia, renewable power, state corporation commission, virginia general assembly