By Heather Michon
Correspondent
Some Fluvanna residents may have noted an increase in their monthly electric bill in June–and not all of it is due to keeping the air conditioners blasting over the recent heat wave.
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC) said the average home using 1200 kWh will see an increase of $6.80 per month.
Beginning on June 1, power supply costs jumped sharply, driven by a surge in prices set by PJM Interconnection. This regional organization oversees the electric grid and wholesale markets for 14 states, including the entire state of Virginia.
CVEC purchases power from regional suppliers through the “transmission highways” managed by PJM. This has, historically, kept rates competitive for CVEC customers.
However, electricity demand is increasing due to the rise of data centers and other resource-hungry businesses, and aging fossil fuel power plants are being retired faster than new, clean energy plants can come online.
“PJM’s ‘capacity’ charges–what we pay to guarantee your power during peak times–soared by up to 1500 percent in our local PJM region last year,” the company said in a recent newsletter to customers.
To offset the increases, CVEC is working to connect its solar fields in Troy and Palmyra directly into its grid, which would allow it to bypass PJM transmission fees. It is also working to build battery storage capacity, enabling them to store power for peak usage times.
Dominion Energy customers are unlikely to see an increase in the short term because the company generates power and sells it on the PJM market.
However, Dominion is pursuing both fuel and base rate increases from the State Cooperation Commission that could begin later this year.
CVEC said its customers can take some actions to offset these higher costs, including performing a “baseline breaker check” to identify power-hungry appliances, setting up energy usage alerts to track energy usage in real-time, and look at prepaid power or levelized billing options.
For more information, visit https://www.mycvec.com/save-energy-money/.
