The August 1 increase noted by the SCC added $2.18 per 1,000 kwh to subsidize the ongoing program to bury residential tap lines in neighborhoods, bringing Rider U to more than $4. The claim is that this work is reducing the frequency or extent of local outages, with the cost spread out to all customers, including business customers. (While not part of VCEA, this program was mandated by the General Assembly, too.)
The increases set for September 1 are:
- $3.81 per 1,000 kwh for transmission costs, the big power lines;
- $3.48 per 1,000 kwh for the purchase of renewable energy certificates from non-carbon fuel plants outside Dominion’s fleet, a mandate from the 2020 VCEA. Absent its own non-CO2 generation, Dominion can meet VCEA emissions targets with such purchases;
- $3.89 per 1,000 kwh covering the accelerating construction costs of the CVOW project, bringing that to a new total of $8.63 per 1,000 kwh. That will continue to rise annually for a while, but no electricity production is expected until 2026. This is another VCEA mandate;
- Another $0.85 for the cost of relicensing Dominion’s nuclear generators and a slight reduction, ($0.16), in the monthly charge on bills for the energy efficiency programs managed by the utility. The energy efficiency programs (think LED bulbs or subsidized low-energy appliances) is yet another aspect of VCEA.
Give the company credit. So far, the massive $10 billion wind project off the coast of Virginia Beach is moving on time and on budget. It filed another update with the SCC just this past week. Monopile construction began in late May. The onshore transmission facilities are also moving along.
The SCC also told the audience of industry representatives, lobbyists and regulators about the coming price increases for the Appalachian Power Company. It serves about 550,000 customers in Western Virginia, smaller than both Dominion (2.6 million customers) and the combined customer base of the rural cooperatives (720,000 accounts).
Appalachian’s exemplar residential bill (1,000 kwh) was $173.01 and is set to rise to $181.13 by the start of 2025. The big increase is due to a change in base rates, not VCEA compliance costs, although it will also start collecting a bit more for energy efficiency programs September 1.
In late 2020, as Virginia entered the era of VCEA compliance, data in an SCC case projected future costs out to 2030 and was reported on Bacon’s Rebellion. A chart in that testimony had the SCC predicting a Dominion residential customer cost for 1,000 kwh of $146-147 by the end of 2024. What was included has probably changed, but if RGGI was one of the projected costs in that 2020 forecast, Dominion would probably be ahead of that projection with these latest changes.
Again, thank you, Governor Glenn Youngkin, for getting Virginia out of RGGI.
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