Ketchum committed to accelerating storage builds and new generation in Virginia to ease import costs while keeping bills affordable.
I'll be super disappointed if we can't accelerate the storage builds in Virginia, to help alleviate some of the high import charges they're facing both on the energy and the capacity side," he said. "It's very important we get new generation up and running as quickly as we can but do it in a way that's affordable for our customers, which I think we can.
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Ketchum said the revised Virginia filing is meant to deliver immediate bill relief while keeping the financial and operating capacity to expand energy infrastructure.
NextEra Energy chairman and CEO John Ketchum said the revised filing was designed to provide immediate bill relief while preserving the financial and operating capacity needed to expand Virginia's energy infrastructure.
Ketchum said NextEra is going beyond its already large benefits package for Dominion Virginia customers, arguing Virginians should not have to choose between near-term bill relief and affordable, reliable power later.
We have already put forward a historic package of benefits for Dominion Energy Virginia customers, workers, and communities, and we are going even further. Virginia should not have to choose between relief on electric bills today and affordable, reliable power tomorrow.
Ketchum defended the Dominion merger by stressing that the nearly $2 billion in proposed Virginia rate credits is the largest in any comparable transaction.
We have almost $2 billion in rate credits in front of the Virginia SCC in our current proposal. That’s by far the most in any transaction of this nature,
Ketchum argued NextEra's leadership in renewables and storage makes the combined company best placed to meet Virginia's Clean Economy Act goals.
When I look at clean energy, we are the world’s leader in renewables. We are the world’s leader in storage,” Ketchum said. “If we can’t get it done, then I don’t know who can in terms of the Clean Economy Act.
Ketchum said NextEra will file a strong rebuttal to intervenor testimony ahead of the mid-November evidentiary hearing.
Really looking forward to bringing this case forward in front of the commission in mid-November and really looking forward to responding to the intervenor testimony that we saw come in Monday that we are still digesting in a very strong rebuttal that we will file here in a couple weeks,