Contact: NOVEC Communications, 1-703-335-0500, communications@novec.com
MANASSAS, Va. — Today, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC) announced a three-step regulatory and stakeholder engagement initiative designed to ensure the Cooperative remains future-ready as energy demand, infrastructure requirements, and regional power market dynamics continue to evolve across Northern Virginia and the entire nation.
"As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, our responsibility is to plan ahead and make thoughtful decisions that support reliable, affordable service for the long term," said NOVEC President and CEO Kristen Senechal. "The energy landscape is changing rapidly, and we believe it is important to act now, through a transparent and collaborative process, to ensure our Cooperative remains future-ready."
NOVEC's initiative is designed to address changing dynamics across the regional electric system. The Cooperative is pursuing a transparent strategy that will modernize terms and conditions, gather stakeholder input, and evaluate future infrastructure and power supply needs.
The first step in this process begins with today's filing. If approved by the State Corporation Commission (SCC), it would update the co-op’s rate classes applicable to large-load customers. While NOVEC cannot shield member-customers from all industry-wide increases in the cost of electricity, it can take meaningful steps to mitigate their impact by ensuring costs attributable to serving large-load customers are assigned to those customers, rather than being shifted to other, smaller users.
The second step, planned for this summer and fall, involves gathering stakeholder input, updating load forecasts, issuing a request for proposals for power supply, and evaluating approaches to fairly assign emerging costs. Building on that work, NOVEC plans to file an application with the SCC to update cost allocation methodologies and rate classifications to help ensure costs are assigned fairly among customer classes.
Building on a Strong Foundation
NOVEC has already taken significant steps to support system reliability while helping protect members from unnecessary or unfair cost-sharing.
- NOVEC developed a data center-specific rate classification that was approved by the SCC in 1999 and has been updated over time. The Cooperative believes another modernization effort is warranted given today's evolving energy landscape.
- Data centers have been assigned more than $1.7 billion in dedicated substation-related costs, helping ensure those investments are borne only by the customers they serve.
- Despite substantial growth in demand, NOVEC residential and small business members continue to benefit from some of the lowest electricity bills in Virginia.
"As electricity costs and infrastructure demands continue to rise across the industry, planning responsibly for the future has never been more important," Senechal said. "Through a transparent, phased approach, we are adapting our planning, power supply strategy, and customer requirements to ensure NOVEC remains future-ready for generations to come."
For more information, visit www.novec.com/futureready.
About NOVEC
NOVEC is a not-for-profit cooperative electric utility that supplies and distributes electricity and energy-related services to more than 184,000 metered customers in Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William, Stafford, and Clarke counties, the Town of Clifton, and the City of Manassas Park. Learn more at novec.com, or call 703-335-0500. NOVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
