Crackling like high voltage transmission lines, a host of issues are abuzz for both electric utilities, including Appalachian Power Co., and utility regulators such as the Virginia State Corporation Commission.

Many customers feel the buzz, too -- some because rate increases since the fall may have raised their electric bills, some because they are passionate about energy conservation and renewable energy, and some because they care a bunch about both.

The SCC announced Friday it is offering opportunities for Virginia residents to weigh in on how utilities can tackle cost-effective energy conservation and help manage customer demand. The commission is accepting written comments, either via regular mail or e-mail, until July 31 and will also hold a related public hearing in September.

Irene Leech is a professor of consumer affairs at Virginia Tech and a longtime watchdog of regulated utilities in Virginia.

"I hope that many individual consumers will care about this and will take advantage of the easy system the SCC has set up for us to participate in this proceeding," Leech said in an e-mail Friday.

"There has been a strong push for Virginia to establish a more challenging goal for how much energy it will save through energy efficiency and demand response," she wrote. "The bottom line is that consumers are going to pay more whether we use more or less energy."

She said the SCC's effort, which resulted from direction this year by the Virginia General Assembly, "gives us a chance to speak up about how we want our state to go in the future."

For Appalachian and its parent company American Electric Power, the issues they face include federal and state legislation setting targets for use of renewable energy sources, the prospect of carbon caps for coal-fired power plants and continuing calls for reduced emissions.

In addition, there are climate change worries, security concerns about electricity grids and the potential for unmanageable spikes in customer demand during periods of unseasonably high heat.

Separately, utilities say they have long encouraged and continue to encourage energy conservation by customers. Although many consumers and environmental organizations would disagree, utilities say they fully support the use of renewables to diversify their fuel sources because it's the right thing to do, both as a business strategy and as responsible corporate citizens.

Todd Burns, a spokesman for Appalachian, said the utility has "plenty of history in trying to educate people about energy conservation and the wise use of energy." One effort Burns cited is the company's Watt, Why & How program, available at www. appalachianpower.com.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, AEP announced it is doubling its earlier goal of adding 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2011. The company, which owns nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity, said the addition will bring the utility's renewable energy portfolio by then to more than 2,600 megawatts.

The goal is one of 12 in AEP's third annual Corporate Sustainability Report, available at www.AEP.com/cr.

AEP spokeswoman Tammy Ridout said all of this renewable energy will be purchased because the utility will not have sufficient capital by 2011 to build new facilities. Wind-generated power for Appalachian is purchased from states that include Indiana and Illinois.

Ridout said the country's most productive wind centers tend to be far from East Coast population centers, a reality AEP believes could require construction of additional transmission lines in the years ahead. She said AEP also will examine the potential energy contributions of biomass, solar and increased use of hydropower.

Ridout said there will have to be a regulatory mechanism to allow AEP and Appalachian to recover related costs.

The SCC said it will "determine a just and reasonable rate-making methodology" to quantify how the responsibility for conservation and demand management costs will be shouldered by residential, commercial and industrial customers.

Regulated utilities are able to recover from customers the cost of generating, transmitting and delivering electricity, as well as expenses for operations and maintenance. In a news release, Michael Morris, AEP's chairman, president and CEO, said that "continuing to diversify our fuel mix with more renewable resources will allow us to meet our customers' energy needs and reduce our carbon footprint."