Dominion has cleared an important environmental hurdle in its request for regulatory approval to build a new nuclear power plant, the Associated Press reports. Federal regulators will make a decision whether to grant a permit in late 2007. Dominion hasn’t decided whether it wants to build the plant, but it wants to keep its options open.
Meanwhile, Dominion needs 300 megawatts more power to serve fast-growing Northern Virginia, reports Greg Edwards with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The company has made plans for a power plant to serve that area during peak demand. … First, though, Dominion Virginia Power wants to see if there is a better and cheaper way to meet its needs.
The company has put out a request for bids to see if someone else can offer a better plan for providing the electricity. Or, as an alternative, it will accept proposals for managing electricity demand in Northern Virginia so that a new plant would become
unnecessary.
I appreciate the fact that Dominion is soliciting proposals rather than presuming that it can do the job better than anyone else. It would be nice, though, it the company would consider other options such as, oh, I don’t know… conservation! A more aggressive time-of-day pricing plan might eliminate the need to build a new power plant entirely.