| Katelyn Polantz

katelyn.polantz@roanoke.com, 381-1669

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech Electric Service, which delivers electricity to customers in Blacksburg, will raise its rates for customers because of Appalachian Power Co. wholesale increases.

Town residents' monthly bills will jump 9.53 percent, to $102.77 for 1,000 kilowatt hours before taxes, the service announced in letters to customers this month. Commercial and church properties in Blacksburg will see increases of nearly 10 percent as well.

The rate hike goes into effect Sunday.

The electric service last increased the town's rates in late 2008. This year's hike was needed to keep the service's bills from Appalachian from outweighing its revenues, service director Fran DeBellis said.

"It's a fact of life," he said. "It's a commodity, and you just can't give it a way. We try our best to reduce costs."

Despite its middle-man position between the power generator and the town, the electric service's rate for residents is comparable to Appalachian's rates. The larger company sells electricity directly to a half-million residents in Virginia for approximately $101.03 per 1,000 kilowatt hours a month, as of Aug. 1.

The electric service's "rates are going up, but everyone's rates are going up," DeBellis said.

In July, Appalachian announced a base-rate increase for residential customers of about $4.25.

Appalachian sets its wholesale power rates separately from its residential and commercial rates.

The 117-year-old service delivers power to about 6,000 residents and commercial customers and to Virginia Tech.

To keep the lights on in Blacksburg, the service must buy about 310 million kilowatt hours each year from Appalachian.

This sucks up almost 80 percent of the nonprofit service's yearly budget, DeBellis said.

The service also generates a small amount of power at its on-campus plant.

Appalachian pumps coal-generated electricity into the service's underground power stations throughout campus and town. At those stations, the electricity downgrades into less than one-fifth of its the original voltage and is delivered to town buildings, lampposts, businesses and homes.

Virginia Tech's electric rates rose 7 percent in January, DeBellis said.

The university's rate change was smaller than the town's because Tech has decreased its energy usage this year, he said.

Some buildings on campus that aren't used during summer have turned down their air-conditioning systems, and other buildings switch lights and computers off at night, DeBellis said.

Officials at fiber optics manufacturer Moog Inc. and grocery store Kroger, the electric service's largest commercial customers, wouldn't comment on the new rates.

Detailed Electric Service rate changes are as follows:

n Residents will pay $.0935 per kilowatt hour, a 9.53 percent increase.

n Churches will pay $.0962 per kwh, a 9.51 percent increase.

n Small general service customers, or businesses, will pay $.0911 per kwh, a 9.45 percent increase.

n Medium general service customers will pay $.0737 per kwh, a 10.3 percent increase. The demand charge -- which is based on the customers' highest kilowatt consumption in a 15-minute period that month -- will be $6.19 per kw, up 9.68 percent.

n Large general service customers will pay $.0529 per kwh, a 9.63 percent increase. Their demand charge will climb 9.51 percent, to $14.14 per kw.

Staff writer Duncan Adams contributed to this report.