The Dominion Resources GreenTech Incubator, a center to assist new businesses focused on energy efficiency and green technologies, will open early next year in Ashland. The GreenTech Incubator will provide assistance with research, financial services and business planning, as well as office space for startup companies. The incubator should generate 150 to 200 new jobs in its first five years, said Dominion Resources Inc., which is contributing $50,000 a year for five years to support the center’s operations.

Dominion Virginia Power customers would get back more than $400 million from the company under an agreement the state’s largest utility has reached with the state attorney general’s office and a group of large ratepayers. If approved by the State Corporation Commission, the proposed settlement of several pending Dominion Virginia Power rate cases would save a typical residential customer—using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month—about $80 next year, the company said.

Dominion Resources Inc.‘s EnergyShare program is accepting applications from people who need financial help to stay warm during the cold winter months. Supported by donations from Dominion customers and employees, EnergyShare helps people experiencing a financial crisis heat their homes after other forms of assistance have been exhausted. Payments on behalf of the recipients go directly to the energy vendors.

Dominion Resources Inc. has winnowed down the number of potential builders for its proposed third nuclear reactor at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County. “We are narrowing down the list,“ said Dominion spokesman Chet Wade, “and we expect to make a decision in the next two quarters.“ Six companies, which Dominion would not identify, bid on the proposed 1,500-megawatt North Anna 3 power plant.

A milder-than-usual summer cut the amount of juice Dominion Virginia Power shipped through its wires in the third quarter. But even so, the company’s parent, the Richmond-based energy giant Dominion Resources Inc., reported 17 percent higher profits during the July-to-September period. A rate increase late in the quarter and increased business with Virginia’s growing military bases helped. So did lower financing charges and income taxes.

When Rappahannock Electric Cooperative and Appalachian Power subscribers buy into those utilities’ green-power programs, all the money goes to purchase renewable-energy certificates. Dominion Virginia Power says half of the price its customers pay to participate in its green-power program, the state’s largest, is used to cover administrative costs.

Half the money customers pay to participate in Dominion Virginia Power’s green power program goes to cover the renewable energy option’s administrative costs. “We do it this way so that the green power program can be 100 percent self-funded,“ said company spokesman Karl Neddenien. “It would be unfair for non-green power customers to bear the cost of managing the program,“ he said.

About 3,500 environmentally concerned Virginians are buying credits to support the development of green power through a Dominion Virginia Power program. “A customer can participate for as little as $2 a month,“ said company spokesman Karl Neddenien yesterday, “and nearly 75 percent of those participating are using the 100-percent option.“

The WRVA Alden Aaroe Shoe Fund isn’t just for shoes anymore. Donations of more than $60,000 this year helped more than 800 children get off to a good start in school with whatever they needed most. “It’s grown to provide more than just shoes,“ said Jeff Baldwin, spokesman for the Salvation Army, which administers the 42-year-old fund. “It’s back-to-school supplies, and if they need a pair of sneakers, by all means get the sneakers, but they may need a hooded sweatshirt or gym shorts instead.“

Environmentalists are appealing a ruling upholding a permit governing carbon-dioxide emissions at a Dominion Virginia Power plant under construction in Virginia’s coalfields. Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Cale Jaffe says a notice of appeal was sent yesterday to the Virginia Court of Appeals. The law center represents a coalition of organizations opposing the 585-megawatt coal-fired plant in Wise County.

Typical Dominion Virginia Power residential customers will see their monthly electricity bills drop by $2.19 starting Thursday. The State Corporation Commission announced a reduction yesterday in the rate that the utility charges customers for the cost of fuel and purchased power. With fuel costs continuing to decline, the latest reduction comes on top of a decrease in the fuel rate on July 1. The combined effect of the July 1 and Oct. 1 fuel-rate reductions is a monthly savings of $5.83 for a customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, the commission said.

The State Corporation Commission restricted its own efforts and did not act in the best interests of residents when it approved a multistate power line that would run through Northern Virginia, a lawyer for opponents of the project told the Virginia Supreme Court yesterday. But attorneys for the SCC and the utilities behind the proposal argued that the commission considered many factors and acted within its broad discretion in approving the Virginia portion of the 500-kilovolt transmission line, which would run 265 miles from Washington County, Pa., to Virginia’s Loudoun County. The line would cross northern West Virginia.

Dominion Virginia Power has launched a new interactive Web map to give subscribers caught in power outages an estimate of when their electricity will be turned back on. “Knowledge may not be as good as ‘power,‘“ said Rodney Blevins, Dominion Virginia Power’s vice president for electric distribution, “but it helps customers better manage the situation.

A demonstration project to remove carbon dioxide from coal-fired smokestack emissions has been proposed for a controversial power plant under construction in far Southwest Virginia.

Dominion Virginia Power got a little ahead of itself in its Bear Garden plant rate case. “Any information provided by Dominion’s representatives that suggested a stipulation or settlement was in place concerning the Bear Garden facility was in error,“ the utility company said in a statement yesterday. Dominion Virginia Power representatives had said Tuesday that the utility had reached a tentative agreement with state regulators on a rate increase to pay for the natural-gas-fired power plant in Buckingham County.