Customers could get break on Dominion Virginia Power bills under deal

A typical Dominion Virginia Power customers would save about $80 on next year's bills under an agreement the state's largest utility has reached with the state attorney general's office and a group of large ratepayers.

Dominion Virginia Power estimates that customers will get back more than $400 million if the deal is approved by the State Corporation Commission.

The proposed settlement would maintain Dominion Virginia Power's base rate structure at pre-Sept. 1 levels. The tentative settlement also would spare the utility the risk of having its rates cut, while customers would receive refunds and credits on their monthly bills in 2010.

The monthly bill for a typical residential customer would be $103.83, including the cost of proposed energy conservation programs, if approved by the SCC.

That would be a 4.5 percent reduction compared with a bill of $108.73 a month for the same customer in March 2009, the company said, when Dominion Virginia Power proposed a base rate increase and other rate adjustments.