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Electric use increasing 3 percent a year
BARC says it may need to expand in coming years
BY JAMES JACENICH • STAFF WRITER
MONTEREY - "If you hear of economic development opportunities, let us know," BARC Electric Cooperative manager of operations Dale Meyer told the Highland County Economic Development Authority Tuesday.
Meyer gave the EDA an overview of BARC's operations, including a description of how power was delivered to Highland County customers.
BARC serves the eastern two-thirds of Highland, in addition to Bath, Rockbridge, and parts of Alleghany and Augusta counties.
The 864 electrical distribution cooperatives in the United States provide service to 75 percent of the U.S. land area and serve 12 percent of the population. Members democratically control electric cooperatives. They are found mostly in rural areas where privately owned utilities prefer not to operate due to the high cost of infrastructure. Future customers per mile of power line means higher costs per customer, he said.
Allegheny Power supplies electricity to the western third of Highland County.
"All power (to Highland County) comes through the Monterey substation," said Meyer.
Allegheny Power owns the Monterey substation. One 69-kilovolt power line carries electricity into Highland County from West Virginia and supplies the needs of both Allegheny Power and BARC customers.
BARC buys its power from the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, which owns 11.6 percent of the North Anna Power Station and 50 percent of the Clover Power Station in Halifax County. BARC interconnects with Allegheny Power in Highland and Dominion Resources everywhere else, Meyer said.
He said the pumped storage station in Bath was not a source of power for BARC, but belonged to Dominion Power, another privately owned utility.
BARC is conducting an engineering study to determine where the load growth is, Meyer said. "We are getting a lot of building up here (in Highland) and may need to improve the distribution system. I can't prove it, though, the engineering (study) needs to tell me."
The data collection phase of the study has ended and data analysis has begun, Meyer said. He did not say when the study would be complete, though one is done every four years.
Meyer said it was difficult to determine future needs. A business might be reluctant to build or expand in Highland County if its power needs could not be met. But building additional infrastructure in anticipation of future needs of customers was also unlikely, he said.
Meyer suggested the EDA inform BARC if it found a business interested in coming to or expanding in the county. BARC, the EDA, and the potential business could work together on a plan to meet the business's energy needs.
A business would submit an application for service to BARC and BARC would do a study to determine the company's power requirement and come up with a construction estimate.
EDA member Dave Smith said, "The (electric) lines (in McDowell) are not big enough. We don't have the demand."
Meyer agreed. "The lines were built for a specific purpose," he said. "But that's the reason for an engineering study (to determine present need)."
Even if BARC were to some day upgrade the power coming to Highland, it would be costly, and customers would need to conserve wherever and whenever possible.
Smith said he encourages people to use more energy saving devices at work and at home.
"If we can encourage conservation our peak (electricity usage) is lower and the capacity is less," said Meyer. "We can pass the savings onto the customers."
Meyer explained the cost of power is based on usage and capacity. Usage is what customers see as a number of kilowatt-hours on their bill. Meyer said customers averaged 860 kilowatt hours per month in the area covered by BARC. The second factor in determining cost is capacity, or the infrastructure - lines, substations and power stations - that are maintained to provide the electricity.
No matter how much electricity customers use each month, they still have to pay a minimum fee to cover the cost of overhead and capacity.
The other factor in cost is the amount of electricity used. As more electricity is generated to meet demand, the cost increases incrementally, Meyer said.
Meyer recommended a simple way to reduce consumption is to replace existing light bulbs with compact fluorescents wherever possible and practical. "They are inexpensive and highly reliable," said Meyer.
"We want to do it (conserve) because it is the right thing to do for our customers and for the environment."
Meyer did not mention the proposed wind turbine development in Highland County, but said he supports alternative sources of energy including, wind generation and solar power, as ways to cut down on the costs of electrical power generation, if for no other reason than they could be built near the user. Privately-owned solar panels or a small, farm-based wind turbine, for example, could cut down on the amount of electricity a customer uses and pay for itself in 5-10 years, he said.
He said the greater the distance the electricity has to travel to the customer, the more it costs. Also, the cost of fuel to power the plants is increasing.
BARC is growing by 3 percent a year, he added. "We are seeing more customers and more energy used per household." One reason for that is that more heat pumps are being installed.
The future looks promising for BARC, Meyer said. "Fifteen to 20 years from now BARC will still be here," he assured the EDA.
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