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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 28, 1994                   TAG: 9412290043
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

VA. POWER PROPOSES NEW CORPORATE RATES

The new method would allow the utility to charge customers different prices each hour of the day for a portion of the power they use.

``Real-time'' pricing would save big customers money, the Richmond-based utility said. In return, the customers would sign five-year contracts with Virginia Power at a time when the utility market is becoming increasingly competitive.

``This would be a totally new way of establishing rates,'' said E. Paul Hilton, rates manager.

Other customers, such as residential ratepayers, also would save money if Virginia Power could delay the need for new power supplies and avoid losing major industrial customers, he said.

Virginia Power is aiming the proposal at 25 large industrial accounts - serving 19 companies - that generate about $200 million in revenue for the utility each year.

Among them are Philip Morris USA, the largest private employer in the Richmond area, and 16 accounts represented by the Virginia Committee for Fair Utility Rates.

The utility asked the State Corporation Commission on Monday for permission to implement the pricing proposal in March, without the normal public notice and hearings. It would evaluate the results in mid-1997.