Energy Assistance Programs
Our energy assistance initiatives are designed to fill the gaps resulting from state and federal funding cuts for low-income heating and cooling assistance programs.
"EnergyShare continues to ensure that safe, warm shelter is available to anyone in need."
-Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, September 2011
In our home state of Virginia, Dominion Energy Assistance Outreach representatives partnered with social workers and public service agencies to host energy assistance and conservation fairs designed to raise public awareness about four types of available assistance:
- Fuel assistance to help eligible households pay their home heating bills;
- Crisis assistance to help individuals and families in heating emergency situations pay security deposits and utility bills, repair or replace heating equipment and fuel or find emergency shelter;
- Cooling assistance to help pay summer electric bills or buy and/or repair cooling equipment; and
- Weatherization assistance to help increase household energy efficiency and reduce air leaks.
EnergyShare Celebrates 30th Anniversary
In 2011, our signature EnergyShare heating and cooling assistance partnership program celebrated 30 years of helping needy customers in Virginia and North Carolina pay their energy bills. Over that period, the program has raised $52 million in donations from employees, customers, churches and civic organizations and helped more than 500,000 individuals and families. A similar program for our Ohio gas customers celebrated 10 years of keeping people warm in their homes.
To mark the program’s 30th anniversary, Dominion pledged a total of $4 million in 2011 -- $2 million in matching funds for the summer cooling season and $2 million in matching funds for the winter heating season. The company also pledged $500,000 to EnergyShare in Ohio.
Fan Care
Fan Care, another Dominion-sponsored cooling assistance program now in its 22st year, continued to assist elderly Virginia residents in cooling their homes during the summer months. We teamed up with retail businesses and the Virginia Department of Aging to provide free fans to eligible seniors who live in our service area. Fan Care is funded by an annual grant of $50,000 from Dominion and administered by local area agencies on aging. A similar program for our North Carolina customers is administered by the North Carolina Division on Aging with a $5,000 grant to the agency’s Project Fan Heat Relief program.
Disaster Relief Assistance
2011 was an unusually harsh year for weather-related events in many of the areas where we do business. In April, a series of tornadoes touched down in parts of Virginia and North Carolina, affecting many communities that we serve.
In response, our charitable foundation donated a total of $150,000 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to help provide emergency services to people affected by the storms.
Then in August, a significant earthquake and a major hurricane hit our electric utility service area of Virginia and North Carolina within three days of each other – a one/two punch not experienced in the past century.
Although the earthquake caused only relatively minor damage, Hurricane Irene affected more than 1.2 million of our customers. To assist families whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged, the Dominion Foundation contributed more than $200,000 to organizations helping victims of the hurricane in Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Connecticut.
A young Portsmouth, Va., resident checks out the engine of an electric Chevy Volt at a Dominion-sponsored energy fair.
On October 12, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell helped Dominion celebrate the 30th year of EnergyShare at a press conference at the Norfolk office of the Salvation Army.