Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995                   TAG: 9509200039
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VA. POWER ASKS FOR RATE REDUCTION

The company cited savings through the operation of its generating units as the reason for asking for the lower fuel charges. The company reported spending $973 million for fuel in 1994.

In Western Virginia, the utility, a unit of Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, sells electricity in portions of Alleghany, Bath, Bedford, Botetourt and Rockbridge counties.

Utilities are not supposed to make a profit on fuel charges, which they are allowed by law to pass on to consumers, although they earn income on the overall service of providing power.

If it is approved, the decrease in the fuel charges would take effect Nov. 1 and would lower the typical monthly residential bill for 1,000 kilowatt hours by $1.84, dropping about 2 percent from $84.97 to $83.13 a month.

Virginia Power will have reduced its fuel charges by 25 percent since 1989 if the proposed cut is approved, the company said. The main factor in the reduction will have been improvements in the performance of its generating units, Virginia Power said.

The company also asked the SCC that it be allowed to charge its large industrial customers a slightly lower fuel charge than it charges residential and other commercial customers, because some of the larger users receive power on higher voltage lines that lose less energy during transmission.

If approved, the fuel charge per kilowatt hour would range from 1.224 cents for large industrial customers to 1.254 cents for residential and small commercial customers. The current charge for all customers is 1.438 cents per kilowatt hour.