Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990                   TAG: 9005010453
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

VIRGINIA POWER RAISES RATES BY $147.5 MILLION

The interim increase was approved Monday by the State Corporation Commission, said Ken Schrad, an SCC spokesman.

The SCC will decide after a public hearing whether to grant the full increase. If it refuses, customers will receive a refund with interest, Schrad said.

Schrad said the commission probably would hold a public hearing in the fall and announce its decision by winter.

With the increase, the summer monthly bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity will go up by $6.76, from $79.88 to $86.64, or 8.5 percent. Electric bills for October through May will go up $6.18, from $74.97 to $81.15, or 8.2 percent.

Virginia Power, the state's largest utility, has said the increase would improve the company's finances and pay for the rising costs of serving a rapidly growing population with new power plants and transmission lines.

- Associated Press