The Virginian-Pilot
©
News Flash: "Dominion ordered to refund $78.3 million to customers."
Well, whaddya know. Our electricity cartel got caught overcharging us and has to pay back about 60 percent of its "overearnings."
Yep, Dominion Virginia Power billed 2.3 million customers about $123.5 million more than it should have in 2009 and 2010 and will have to issue refunds of - drum roll, please - $78.3 million.
Never mind about the remaining $45 million - buy stock in Dominion if you want a piece of that.
According to a report in Friday's Pilot, this is the second time Dominion's captive customers have been overcharged in the past three years, which proves, once again, that Virginia's utilities enjoy some of the loosest regulations in the nation.
What's that, you say? Since when do raving capitalists favor strict regulations on publicly held companies?
Frankly, free market principles don't work well when applied to utilities or monopolies. In these parts, you either buy your juice from Dominion or build your own nuclear power plant. Or windmill. Or huddle around a wood stove and read by candlelight.
The product that Dominion sells is critical to life, national defense and all that we hold dear. Think about it. In the coming months, Dominion Virginia Power is all that stands between most of us and frostbite.
Regulators in Richmond limit the utility to reasonable profit margins. For example, Dominion was supposed to keep earnings in the 11.9 percent range - give or take a half a percentage point - for the past two years.
Instead, it raked in 13.3 percent.
So the State Corporation Commission announced that we'll get refunds. However, the amounts will be minuscule and the utility also is allowed to dole them out over six months.
Looks like the average 1,000-kilowatt-hours-a-month customer will get a credit of about 17 bucks. Or $2.80 a month.
Starbucks, here I come. Make mine a tall, please.
Still, timing is everything, and these headlines were positively serendipitous. The news broke Thursday, on the eve of the only weekend of the year when many of us are paying attention to our consumption of power.
Today is Day Two of the annual Festival of Extension Cords, when even those of us who compulsively shut off lights and set thermostats at chilblain levels light up our shrubbery and hang electric icicles from the roof - because we know how much Baby Jesus loves illuminated bushes and gutters.
The downside is that in January, we're struck by high-voltage electric bill.
Yet there may be a way to beat Dominion at its own overcharge-now-pay-back-a-pittance-later game. Thanks to the Holiday Lighting Energy calculator - a cool tool on Dominion's website - customers can figure out precisely how much their waving Santas and blinking reindeer will cost.
Just plug in the number of lights you plan to use and the hours they'll be on to see how much you're larding onto your bill.
Despite being math-impaired, I was able figure out that if I reduce this year's electrical display by just two bushes - 10 strands of 100 lights - I can save about $12.40. Add that to the $17.10 rebate the company will likely dole out to me in six easy payments next year, and I could be looking at a whopping $29.40 in my pocket.
On second thought, barista, make mine a caramel macchiato. Venti.
With whipped cream.
Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net or PilotOnline.com/dougherty
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Here we go again,,,,
Of course Dominion Power needs to be taken out and beaten, I'm talking about high level execs here, not the ordinary joe or jane just doing their job. Take the execs out and beat them till their bloody, taking them to court will only cause others to be fired and let go because Dominion will have to pay out in a law suit. So, just beat the execs bloody, and leave them impaired and cripple. Make an example out of them, and then discount all powers users bills 20% a month for a year. I'm for more of a personal accounting by those responsible.
Also, forget GOVERNMENT intervention, Private Business is a good thing, I will die fighting to protect this country from Socialism.
Measley Refund
This article has one glaring factual innaccuracy. You can't get a 'tall' anything at Starbucks for two dollars and eighty cents. :)
Dominion overcharging
and what happens to those of who paid Dominion's rates for years but due to the current enconomy, now live where I don't have my own electric service (part of rent) so I'll never see the refund.
Privet business doing wrong? Say it aint so
Private business, the savior of the country, the answer of all that is wrong with this country did somethig wrong. It cant be.
You must be a Recipient of Givernement Aid
Your's is a typical post of someone that has taken from Government and given nothing in return. You are nothing more than apart of the problem, and the root cause of all the issues of this country.
That's why pencils have erasers...
When the media makes a mistake, a simple retraction is offered and it's never spoken of again. When anyone outside of media makes an error, it's potentially front page news and the media points fingers. It must be nice to be paid for one's opinion, never having to worry about making an error.
Yes, in aggregate it's a large amount but per household it's rather small. It should certainly be refunded and the root cause remediated, but simply fix it and move on.
..and no, I don't work in the utility industry.
Profit Cycle
But, Dominion needs to overcharge us, so they can buy-off the really-expensive politicians, in order to get the favorable legislation, that loosens regulation and allows them to overcharge us some more.