Bacon's Rebellion

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Electric Bill Shocker — Dominion Seeks $1 Billion+ in Fuel Adjustments

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Holy, moly! Virginia Dominion Power is applying to pass along fuel price increases that will increase the average residential electric bill by more than 18 percent, or about $1.1 billion a year. What’s more, the power company wants to collect on fuel costs that previously went unbilled, which would add another $697 million over three years.

Dominion blames the global increases in energy prices, with coal and natural gas figuring most prominently in its fuel mix. If you ever had doubts about nuclear power, you might now change your tune. Without Dominion’s nukes, the fuel adjustment would be far worse.

I don’t have time to get into details today, but I will tomorrow. Dominion Virginia Power kindly granted me a 20-minute interview with President David A. Heacock, so I have some good stuff to share.

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  1. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    Wait… wait !!!!

    Wasn’t the idea of “coal” that the U.S. was/is the Saudi Arabia of coal and THE path to energy independence by using OUR “clean coal” technology?

    and NOW.. we find out that.. “our” coal.. really is just a commodity going to the highest bidder.. and .. oh by the way.. giving major smiles to NS, CSX and the Va Ports as they ship those full boats to China and others willing to bid up the price on “our” coal.

    holy crap… we’ve been snookered again… what a bunch of rubes we are…

    and I like this.. a very nice touch:

    “….the company is taking steps to help customers cope with the increased rates …changes to its budget billing plan…”

    How about Smart Meters to “help” folks… and rewarding those that conserve with lower rates than those that do not?

    I wonder how much the fuel factor has to do with peak power?

    Is it possible that this increase is really a peak-power increase?

    .. actually this is really good news… as it moves us closer and closer to the time when wind and solar could become legitimate contenders..

    and if you are a Dominion customer you can be much relieved that the rural cooperative customers are ALREADY paying the proposed Dominion rates and the fuel factors will probably run even more amok to those getting rural coop power…

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    could also be that they had some really unprofitable trades/hedges locked in that are now coming due. ?? dunno. it’s just that lots of pricing is locked in a priori, not on the spot market, so I wonder.

  3. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    $4 gasoline,$150 oil, skyrocketing food prices, mortgage meltdowns, HOT lanes…

    what next? looks like hunker down time has arrived..

    the end of long-distance commuting – as we know it…

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “actually this is really good news… as it moves us closer and closer to the time when wind and solar could become legitimate contenders”

    Bingo.

    RH

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I was going to grow more foo this year to counterct skyrocketing food prices, but now I don’t know if I can afford to freeze it.

    RH

  6. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    “foo”?

    is that anything like Soylent Green?

    Will Facquier County allow you to do that?

    I thought they charged you for everything you did extra about doing nothing with your property…

    🙂

  7. Les Avatar
    Les

    Coal production seems about the same but the US is exporting so much more of it, especially to Europe and Africa.

    supply:

    http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/coalnews/coalmar.html

    exports:

    http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/html/t7p01p1.html

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Yeah foo, as in fooey.

    We have a lot of Soylent green around here. It’s stupid really, I can buy it cheaper than I can grow it. But, I may start growing meat, too: that way I can cut down on the mowing.

    Yep, they charge me extra for doing nothing, and more extra for doing anything else.

    I thought about running my freezer for the Soylent green with a windmill, but there’s a prohibition on anything over eighty feet high, and the property tax is higher than the electric bill.

    They are going to have a fit when I finish building my sailboat and put the mast up. (Fauquier hasn’t thought of prohibiting sailboats, yet.)

    RH

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