RICHMOND- The State Corporation Commission said Friday that Dominion Virginia Power can increase rates by about 18 percent to recover its soaring fuel costs.
After the increase takes effect Tuesday, a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatts of electricity per month will pay an additional 16.61 per month, the SCC said.
A company official told the three-member commission this week that Dominion has seen price increases of 95 percent for coal, 55 percent for oil and 290 percent for natural gas. State law allows the utility to recover fuel costs from its customers.
Large industrial customers, apartment complex owners, federal agencies and the state attorney general’s office, representing Virginia consumers, supported the 1.3 billion annual rate increase. Dominion deferred about 697 million in costs to hold the increase to 18 percent. Otherwise, it would have been about 22 percent.
The utility will have to file another case next year to begin collecting the deferred costs.
During the next year, Dominion expects to buy almost 600 million worth of fuel from its unregulated affiliates. To keep customers’ fuel rates as low as possible, the SCC ordered an audit to ensure that Dominion pays whichever is lower _ the affiliates’ actual cost of fuel, or the market price.
The commission also ordered Dominion to demonstrate that it is selling any excess power to other systems and that it is taking steps to minimize its costs of obtaining oil, natural gas and wholesale electricity.