Holy crap, Batman. We just got tipped off by some birdies that Dominion Virginia Power has requested a rate increase in electricity prices of nearly 20%!
Dominion Power’s President, David A. Heacock explained “the market prices of fuel used to run our power stations – coal, natural gas, fuel oil and uranium – have risen by more than 200 percent in some cases since fuel rates were last fully aligned with market conditions in 2004.”
Unfortunately, we live in a world where most of our energy consumption is linked to fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources. If you want to change things, you aren’t going to get it by sitting around waiting for energy companies to make that change for you. You have to conserve and take other initiatives to reduce your energy bill.
While we’ve already seen an increase in food prices, this will put a lot more pressure on local businesses that consume power. Expect businesses to pass on increased energy costs to you later this year.
Dominion explained:
The SCC must approve the fuel rate increase and deferral of additional fuel costs before they can take effect. The proposed fuel rate adjustment would increase the average monthly bill of a typical residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month by $16.61, or 18.3 percent, to $107.20. Without the deferral proposed by Dominion, the requested increase would have been 22.2 percent for the same typical residential customer.
These rate increases would be effective July 1, but still need to be approved in upcoming weeks. Does anyone have any information on how likely this is to be approved?
If you want to read more about the details of the price increase, go here. We also have some informative charts you can read after the break. So much for those presents from Uncle Sam!
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Tagged as: business, Charlottesville, electricity, fuel, increase, inflation, power, price, Questions, surcharge, Virginia
The request is not out of line given energy prices. I would guess that they wold ask for an increase that is higher than they will get in the end. I not in favor of this but it seems unavoidable.
Roboto.. I agree. It sucks and we can’t do nothing right now.
duh.
but at the end of the day we can realize our dollar ain’t worth much anymore and all this could have been resolved about 30 years ago, but we got reagan instead. now we get to stare 30’s style deppression in the face within the next few years. dust bowl and all- thanks, ethanol.
/go team.
Well, the good news is, at least we aren’t experiencing inflation.
PSYCH!
And there’s always booze to cheer us up.
Did anyone else notice that nuclear wasn’t in Dominion’s list of wholesale price increases? And IIRC, they get a lot of power from the nukes at Lake Anna. Wonder if they’re still pushing to build new ones out there?
@6, you’re reading that chart wrong. Those are the price increases for the commodities generally associated with power generation compared to dominions price increases over the same time (4%)
Even if the price of uranium went up, the cost of raw material/cost of turning it into electricity ratio is so much lower for nuclear (I would think, at least) that I’m sure Dominion isn’t the only producer giving new nukes serious consideration.
http://www.uxc.com/review/uxc_g_2yr-price.html
Well, isn’t nuclear the most environmentally friendly option out there that actually produces enough energy?
@6 since a new nuclear site hasn’t been built in about 30 years increase in cost (other than increased homeland security cost) are marginal and hard to compare. Yes the still want new plants
nuclear is coming and if 9/11 had not happened would probably already be here.
@8 the fuel cost of nuclear fuel is minor compared with disposal and other the other associated cost but pretty cool sire. I have never looked up refueling cost and am quite curious why they have dropped so much.
@8, Thor, that price graph is for uranium oxide, which I believe is the initial raw material dug out of the ground? (lots of it right here in Virginia, btw) (help me science-people) whereas a power plant needs it enriched to a certain level (U-238? or am I thinking of weapons grade?) You’d think that with the de-commissioning or warheads thats been going on over the last 15 years or so that there’d be a glut of suitable material entering the market, but apparently not the case… older warheads and shorter half-life=too much decay? I haven’t got a clue.
@9, We haven’t built any new commercial reactors in the last 30 years (other than Shoreham in NY which my dad worked on, and which never got above 10% trials) but the Navy is cranking them out all the time.
Yes, I think you are right, but it is a cost that they have to deal with before they enrich it. Any nuclear experts on here?
I was thinking of U-235. Ooops
If Dominion built new CANDU style heavy water reactors at Lake Anna it could use the spent fuel from its existing light water reactors there to fuel them, or naturally existing unenriched uranium ore from right here in the commonwealth, and wouldn’t have such a drastic impact on lake water temperatures either.
Local blogger Francesco DeParis of Deparis Redinger LLC (maybe you’ve heard of them?) has an alternative energy blog. I’m surprised he hasn’t weighed in on this issue yet here
Doof et al.: Right on all counts about the nukes, AFAIK. My point was that if Dominion got additional reactors up and running at Lake Anna, they’d buy less raw material on the commodities markets which would help stabilize their costs, reduce demand on fossil fuels, provide for a cleaner environment in the near term (yeah, there’s that whole pesky waste issue that needs to be better addressed) and most importantly, help keep my power bill down!
so perhaps we could say that the entire “buy local” movement is an endorse of nuclear energy?
Imagine what the increase would have been had deregulation actually happened! This is just a request, from a regulated industry. The cost of fuel is interesting, but it’s definitely not a done deal.
We cut our energy consumption at home by 40% simply by:
- Replacing all incandescent bulbs with CF bulbs
- Washing all laundry in cold water
- Replacing Showerheads with low-flow (1.4 GPM) showerheads
- Turning off computers when not in use
- Insulating Hot Water Heater
- Turned off file server (which was on 24/7) and replacing it with a networked hard drive (also on 24/7 but at much less wattage)
And as far as going “green” goes, any source of information on green energy worth it’s salt will tell you that the first step to any green initiative is to conserve. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. Then worry about nuclear power, solar power, etc. No alternative energy technology on the planet will save us if we maintain our current rate of consumption, point blank and period.
@16 I want to like that blog but its tartar blows
And the font was from Norway! Never going there again!
@22, 23: thank you. this thread was way too smart there for a while.
/seriously
doof emerges from a long silence with detailed knowledge of nuclear power, coupled with a nice dose of snark. Doof wins internet.
Wow…your rates in VA after such a hike would be half what we pay in CT.
@27… that’s because you are all rich Northern folk and we all live in badly insulated doublewide trailers which lose heat faster than a steaming turd. Half the south would die of hypothermia if we had to pay Northern prices… oh and our property taxes can be as low as 58c per $ assessed value as well to give us more money for moonshine, tattoos and pitbull puppies
27, 28: Also, since Connecticut is the whitest state in the Union, it actually reflects 100% of all natural light, requiring a much higher expenditure on alternative heat sources.
/zOMG! I’m just kidding. Welcome to the party, CT. Have some free heat and a freshly baked cookie!
Hm, on re-reading 29, it seems overly harsh. Sorry, Connecticut! It’s cool to hear from other states on this question.
/and you really can help yourself to the boxed wine and tortilla chips.
@27 stanley just wants to get all up in your yacht.
You’re a yacht, parlie.
The first several posts had me in limbo… We got some edumacatated folk in here. Damn Doof!
Meaning my understanding of the dependance of uranium and such is minimal, but when we talk diesel and petrol, then we can create a great discourse on its effects. Working part time in logistics, I’ve seen trucks that filled up with $520 two years ago, now averaging $960. Their contracts are outdated, so business is not so super.
/can we talk about this? It affects everything we do.
honey have you seen my nantucket reds? i’m going to go fill up the yacht. with caviar!
oh man, connecticut.
35: Each individual caviar egg from my yacht has its own personal mini-yacht, powered by a mini-nuclear reactor, and they all chug along the starboard side until it’s time for more human fuel.
/see, five, we’re talking about it!
i was talking about my nantucket reds. which, it should be noted, have little yachts embroidered on them in a grid-like interval. i wake up every morning and thank god that i have pants as awesome as those.
37: Oh?
[google image searches]
Oh.
I guess you lose the internet for being snobby enough to know that + having to explain your joke.
/we’ll always have towels
i’ll give you something to google image search about.
what parlie? The scent of your fart?
brilliant!
@35 I was visiting my sister at her college in Hartford, Conn years ago and a guy with “pink” pants walked by with his girlfriend. I exclaimed out loud ‘Holy shit those are some pink pants’. His girlfriend turned and angrily said ‘FUCK YOU!’ My sister whispered in my ear ‘That’s nantucket red, they are very sensitive about it’. I said ‘Oh.’
I don’t blame them for raising rates. It’ll suck, but Dominion barely charged anything. I paid $29 last month in electricity.
@43 how is that even possible? the least i’ve ever paid is $45, & i was out of town for the entire month will all my appliances unplugged.
I am frugal. It’ll go up during the summer when I turn on my air conditioning, but even then, I still keep my thermostat 76-78 degrees and have never paid more than $70 or so for electricity.
i don’t see how anything could more frugal than not using any electricity. dominion must just make up the numbers.
Fuckkkkkkkkk Dominion power.
@46, there are a couple of quite reasonable explanations, Orchid. Either the Dominion billing month does not correspond to an actual calendar month, causing your time away to be split between two billing months when you used some electricity while you were there, or, as many utilities do, Dominion estimates use every other month based on historical rates of consumption. This allows them to only actually read your meter every other month and saves on manpower (but then my bill would be $0 the next month, no?):
Lets say you use 1000 kilowatt hours in Feb. but they only think you’d use 600 based on data so your bill reflects this and is $100.
Then they come out and read your meter at the end of March, and even though you weren’t there it appears you’ve used another 400kw hrs., thus your bill for $70.
A combination of the two factors is most likely what happened.
Sorry if this is oversimplified.
@48 i get, the concept but if i’m away for 3 straight months, shouldn’t my bill get down to 0 by the end? or at least appreciably less than when i’m there?
@49, Yes, under those circumstance you should see an appreciable decrease in your bill. Unplug the appliances as you did at that time and go outside and see if your meter is still spinning, and how fast it is. If electricity supplies heating or air-conditioning in your apartment or some component thereof (perhaps you have gas heat, but your air-handler which circulates air throughout your unit runs on electricity, etc..?) or you have an uninsulated electric hot-water heater, inefficient refrigerator, etc. then you’ll continue to burn kw hrs. even when you’re not there. Turn off breakers to make sure those things you can’t unplug aren’t costing you. If you have outside outlets, make sure the breaker to those is off too (I once
stole“borrowed” power while mine was off by cutting the female end off a heavy duty extension cord and splicing on another male end. Plug one end into someone else’s outside outlet, and the other end into one of yours and you can get limited power throughout your apartment (limited by the size of the breaker on the circuit you’re stealing from [15 or sometimes 20 amps] and the gauge of the wire in the cord, as well as its length. [I do NOT recommend this, btw])wow, doof, you’re smart.
oh man that’s got darwin award written all over it.
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