Power prices up?

BY DAVID RESS
Media General News Service
Published: June 26, 2008

A stinging 18.3 percent, $1.3 billion-a-year increase in electric bills proposed by Dominion Virginia Power probably won’t get the utility and its customers caught up with soaring fuel prices.

Gains in oil and gas prices in recent weeks already point to another big increase — possibly approaching $1 billion — next summer, State Corporation Commission staff said at a hearing Tuesday about the utility’s proposed $1.3 billion rise in the fuel charges it passes on to customers.

The commission is considering Dominion Virginia Power’s request to increase monthly bills for a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of power from $90.59 to $107.20, beginning July 1. It is likely to reach a decision this week.

“The 18.3 percent increase Dominion is seeking may price electricity out of the reach of many customers,“ Altamese R. Johnson, a Richmond retiree, told the commission.

But SCC Judge Mark C. Christie said the commission did not have the power to keep the utility from collecting its fuel costs from consumers.

Dominion Virginia Power expects its fuel bill to reach $2.6 billion for the 12 months beginning July 1, double what it currently collects from consumers.
Mark F. McGettrick, president and CEO of Dominion Generation, the utility’s power-plant affiliate, said coal prices have increased 95 percent in the past year, by 55 percent, and natural gas by 20 percent.