Rappahannock Electric seeks to serve 50,000 Potomac Edison customers

Rappahannock Electric Cooperative will grow by nearly 50 percent under a $350 million plan to serve half of Potomac Edison's Virginia customers.

Fredericksburg-based Rappahannock Electric will gain about 50,000 subscribers if the State Corporation Commission approves the transfer of service.

"We'd like to start serving these Potomac Edison customers by Jan. 1," said Rappahannock spokeswoman Rhonda F. Curtis, "but there's a lot of work to be done."

Though Rappahannock's rates are now higher than Potomac Edison's, rates for the co-op's new customers will not change because of the acquisition until 2013, Curtis said.

Rappahannock this week announced an agreement with Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative, based in Mount Crawford, to provide electricity service to Potomac Edison's Virginia consumers.

Shenandoah Valley Electric will serve the other half of Potomac Edison's subscribers in the Old Dominion.

Potomac Edison is a subsidiary of Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy.

Buying Potomac Edison's Virginia operations will cost about $350 million, Curtis said, and the two not-for-profit cooperatives will split that cost equally.

Rappahannock Electric provides electricity to 103,000 customers and maintains over 12,500 miles of power lines in parts of 16 counties. After the expansion, the co-op will be the third largest electric utility in the state.

Rappahannock Electric will grow to handle portions of Clarke, Frederick and Warren counties.

The cooperative will also take on additional areas in Albemarle, Greene, Fauquier, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties, localities where the cooperative already operates.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .