Dominion seeks SCC approval to charge customers who opt out of smart meters

The State Corporation Commission is doing a biennial review of Dominion Energy Virginia – analyzing base rates as well as terms and conditions. As part of the review, the public is invited to weigh in on proposed changes.

Dominion is not proposing any increase or decrease in total base rates for the upcoming rate periods. The company is, among other things, proposing to revise its advanced metering infrastructure or smart meter opt-out policy.

Under Dominion’s current opt-out policy, qualifying residential customers can opt out of smart meter installation upon request at no expense.

Under the revised policy, customers requesting to opt out of AMI installation will be charged a monthly fee of $10.35 to recover labor and administrative costs associated with the monthly meter reading.

Dominion also seeks approval to increase the basic monthly customer charge for residential customers receiving service under Schedule 1. The company proposed to increase the basic charge from $7.58 to $9.05, effective January 1, 2025.

Comment period

The SCC has scheduled a public witness session to begin at 10 a.m. on Nov. 20. Public witnesses who wish to provide oral testimony must pre-register with the SCC by 5 p.m. on Nov. 15. The hearing will be webcast at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting.

Public witnesses wishing to provide oral testimony may pre-register in one of three ways:

• Completing a public witness form for case number PUR-2023-00101 on the SCC’s website at: scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting
• E-mailing the same form (PDF version on the same website as above) to [email protected]
• Calling the SCC at (804) 371-9141 during normal business hours (8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and providing your name and the phone number you wish the commission to call to reach you during the hearing

To promote fairness for all public witnesses, each witness will be allotted five minutes to provide testimony.

A public evidentiary hearing will follow the public witness hearing at 10 a.m. on Nov. 28 , in the SCC’s second floor courtroom at 1300 East Main St. in Richmond to receive testimony and evidence from the company, any respondents and the SCC staff.

For those who prefer, there is also an opportunity to provide comments in writing on the Dominion application.

Written comments may be submitted through the SCC’s website by Nov. 20, at scc.virginia.gov/case comments/Submit-Public-Comments.

Simply go to the SCC website, select “cases” and then “submit public comments,” and scroll down to case number PUR-2023-00101. Then click “submit comments.”

Comments may also be submitted by U.S. mail to the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission, c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118. All comments must refer to case number PUR-2023-00101.