About BRPA:

Blue Ridge Power Agency ("Blue Ridge") is a non-profit corporation established in 1988 under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia and falls under Section 501(c)(12) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is a "joint action" agency that operates as directed by the Board of Directors. Each member appoints one Director and one or more Alternate from its organization to the Board.

The ultimate goal of the organization, through the power of numbers (size), collective resolve and economies of scale of cooperative, i.e. "joint" action, is to pursue those activities which will insure the most reliable and lowest cost wholesale electric power supplies possible for its members today and in the future.

There are currently ten members of the agency as listed below, consisting of seven municipalities, one state institution and two electric cooperatives. Blue Ridge represents its members' best interest in several forums by direct staff involvement and/or coordination of the efforts of its attorney(s) and/or consultant(s). In each of these areas, wholesale and/or retail power supply, transmission and service issues are involved: energy and transmission services and/or facilities procurement, contract negotiation; contract administration; consolidated billing; state and federal regulatory proceedings and litigation; state and federal legislation which includes education and lobbying efforts; joint purchasing; industry information dissemination; training; and "as assigned."

The current efforts of Blue Ridge and its staff are focused mostly in four main areas: (1) administering its members' current power supply contracts with AEP and SEPA as well as the associated contract with PJM; (2) executing an RFP process to secure power supply to pickup at the end of the current AEP contracts; (3) investigating the feasibility of a base load power generation facility; (4) representing BRPA members' interest where wholesale power supply and transmission issues are involved, particularly in regard to the electric industry's transition to wholesale "markets" and separate transmission services/markets as well as the "customer choice" structure at retail in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Generation was deregulated at the Federal level in 1992. Efforts now concentrate on the restructuring of the regulatory provisions for continued monopoly service at the transmission, distribution and customer service levels of the industry. It is especially crucial that the laws and regulatory structures that develop over the next few years are fair, non-discriminatory and promote real competition.

Meeting Information:

Generally the business meetings of the Blue Ridge Board of Directors is held on the fourth Thursday of each month at 10:00 a.m. The standing location for meetings is the Salem, VA Civic Center located at 1001 Boulevard (yes, nothing precedes the word "Boulevard"). The meeting room is listed on a board at the main entrances and on the meeting room itself. The time and place changes from time to time due to member schedule conflicts and an effort to meet periodically in the member communities.

The next business meeting of the Blue Ridge Power Agency will be held on
Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. at the Virginia Tech Electric Service Building in Blacksburg, Va.
For those interested in attending who need directions, they may contact the Blue Ridge office.