ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997 TAG: 9704070016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: WAYNESBORO
SOURCE: JAN CIENSKI ASSOCIATED PRESS
Denney has two turbines in a dilapidated grist mill on the South River just outside Waynesboro. In a good month, he generates enough electricity to light about 2,000 homes, including his own, and earns about $600 from Virginia Power.
His tiny operation is a legacy of the late 1970s, when the Arab oil embargo produced long lines at gas stations and the president appealed on national television for Americans to turn down the heat in their homes. The federal Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 required utilities to line up energy from nontraditional power generators, including small producers such as Denney.
Virginia Power deals with about 30 small producers, who generate three-tenths of 1percent of the utility's total generating capacity of 18,000 megawatts.
Denney, a Waynesboro lawyer, began dreaming of producing his own electricity in 1979, shortly after he and his wife bought their house and the adjoining mill.
When he started, he thought it would be a relatively easy job: Clean out the spillway that directs water toward the mill from the South River, clean up the two turbines inside, and presto - free electricity.
The job turned out to be a lot more complicated than that.
The turbines, one made in 1870 and the other in 1894, were useless.
``I spent hours using WD-40, Liquid Wrench and an oxyacetylene torch trying to get the parts to move, but they were too rusted,'' he said.
Denney removed the old turbines piece by piece, then began hunting for something to fill the holes in the bottom of his mill.
He paid $1,000 for a turbine from a dinner theater in an old mill in Colonial Heights.
He found his second turbine after contacting the Ohio company that made the rusted turbines he had found in his mill. The company said it had sold another turbine to a mill just down the river. But the mill had burned down and the turbine had been buried.
Denney persuaded the property owners to let him dig around for it.
``It was like digging for buried treasure, and sure enough, about 10 feet down we found it,'' he said.
With the help of friends and neighbors, Denney patched the dam directing the South River's water to his mill, poured concrete floors, laid cables and wires and installed the turbines. And by the last day of 1983, the mill produced its first kilowatt of power.
Denney then struck a sweet deal with Virginia Power. The utility, thinking the cost of electricity would rise, agreed in a contract valid until 2013 to buy power for 7 cents per kilowatt hour at peak times and 5 cents at other times. Electricity now sells for about 2 cents per kilowatt hour.
Virginia Power is not happy with the arrangement.
``It certainly is not a good situation in a competitive environment to be buying a high-priced commodity,'' said Jeffrey Jones, director of capacity contracts for Virginia Power.
But dollars and cents aren't the most important thing for Denny. Standing outside his mill, he watched the dark green water surge toward his turbines and listened to them hum.
``You get attuned to the noise,'' he said. ``It gives you a sense of satisfaction.''
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Ronald and Kathy Denney earn aboutby CNB$600 a month from their power plant.