COLUMBIA, S.C. — Dominion Energy is now scaling back their original rate hike request to the Public Service Commission.
“Our goal is to provide reliability, security and peace of mind to our customers who depend upon on us each and every second of their day,” Keller Kissam, Dominion Energy SC president, said.
The energy company was originally seeking a rate increase of over 14 percent, but now under a settlement agreement filed with the Public Service Commission, the rate increase would be about 5%.
"All of the population growth that we have. Bluffton, 10%, the march coming up the coast, coming up I-26, it’s tremendous. The more you sit in traffic, that’s the more houses that are going on. All those things together and all of that growth, define the investments we have to make on a daily basis to serve our existing customers and to connect our new customers,”- Kissam said.
Fuel costs have decreased since the rate hike request, which Dominion says was the primary factor to the original request. If approved by the commission, the bill for a typical residential customer would increase more about $10 per month.
"Shareholder funds shall be used primarily to address low income customer needs and may be used to address health and safety issues that would otherwise preclude program participation,” Kissam said.
A one time bill credit of $7.5 million funded by shareholders would be applied to this year for residential and small businesses, something the president of the SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce says is a great deal.
“We're pleased with that. we've reduced the rates that were originally proposed for small business it was 15% about and we reduced it by 60% so now we're looking rate increase between five and 6% for small businesses,” Frank Knapp said.
Monday marked the first of three days of testimony for the energy company.
If this proposal is approved, it would be the first general electric rate increase customers have seen in almost four years.