Electric News Releases

June 19, 2000

Virginia Power Is Ready For The Hot Summer

RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Power, a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D),  is ready to meet this summer’s demand for electricity from its 2 million customers, a company officer told U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson Monday at the Virginia Electric Reliability Summit.

"All generating units will be operating, and 600 megawatts of new peaking power for those hottest days will be on-line and available very soon," James T. Earwood, senior vice president-Bulk Power Delivery, told the summit. "We have adequate supplies of generating capacity to meet demand. Electric service reliability is our top priority."

Richmond was another stop on the U.S. Department of Energy’s nationwide tour that is focused on the reliability of the nation’s electric grid. A recent report by the North American Electric Reliability Council predicted most of the nation, including the Southeast, would have adequate generating capacity to meet customer demand this summer. However, the report listed three areas where electricity generation may not be enough on the hottest days -- New England, New York and the southwestern United States.

Dominion Generation, which supplies the electricity for Virginia Power’s customers, has a summertime generating capacity of about 17,600 megawatts, including 600 megawatts of peaking power that will be supplied by four new gas-fired combustion turbines in Fauquier County. Company forecasters predict a peak demand for electricity usage at about 15,700 megawatts this summer.

"We have made deliberate, planned efforts to keep pace with our service area’s strong economic and population growth," Earwood said. During the past decade, Virginia’s growing economy has brought nearly 250,000 additional customers into the company’s service area. To accommodate that growth, the company has added about 5,500 megawatts of generating capacity and 545 miles of new transmission lines or upgrades to its system since 1990. One megawatt can power approximately 250 typical residential homes.

The company also commits more than $100 million annually in electric system infrastructure improvements, such as upgrading and repairing cables, circuits, transformers and distribution wires. 

The result is that Virginia Power customers had electricity an average of 99.8 percent of the time in 1999, or for all but 12 of the 8,760 hours in the year. Included in those outage hours were severe weather events, including two freezing rainstorms and two hurricanes.

Virginia Power is a subsidiary of Dominion, the nation’s largest fully integrated natural gas and electric company, providing energy to more than 4 million customers in five states. More information on Dominion can be found on the Internet at www.dom.com.

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