Contact: Priscilla Knight, 703-392-1580, pknight@novec.com
NOVEC reliability score is among highest in the nation
NORTHERN VIRGINIA – The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative's board of directors voted in January 2010 to return $2.1 million to customer-owners in the form of CashBack. CashBack refunds will be deducted from current customers' February bills. The refund is in addition to the $2.36 million CashBack refund directors authorized in December 2009.
New power supply has stabilized NOVEC's costs
According to NOVEC President/CEO Stan Feuerberg, the CashBack return is the direct result of successful management of power supply by the NOVEC team. "We assumed internal responsibility for purchasing wholesale power in 2009," Feuerberg said. "We met our initial goal of stabilizing power costs, which had risen steadily from 2000 to 2008. We are now working to drive that cost down. This $2.1 million CashBack return of capital to our customers demonstrates we can be successful in doing so."
Feuerberg referenced the Dec. 18-19 snowstorm and January's prolonged cold weather. He said, "Cold temperatures have caused our customers to use more electricity to stay warm. Consequently, this is an especially good time to give them CashBack."
NOVEC reliability score is among highest in the nation
NOVEC has been ranked as the most reliable electric utility in the region for the last eleven years. Feuerberg said, "This past year, J.D. Power's Residential Customer Satisfaction study placed NOVEC first, again, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and second out of 121 of the nation's largest electric utilities in 'Power Quality and Reliability.' These are remarkable results."
NOVEC's system average interruption frequency index (SAIDI) for 2009 was 77.2 minutes, which means customers had power 99.985 percent of the time. According to Tony Weaver, system operations analyst, the company surpassed its goal of meeting this important reliability target. SAIDI is one of the electric utility industry's standard measures for reliability.
Weaver said, "NOVEC performed well because it continuously works to identify and implement cost-effective measures to prevent outages and minimize their impact when they occur."
