Businessmodel of Dominion East Ohio

Customer Segments

Dominion has a segmented market business model, with customer groups that have slightly different needs. The company targets its offerings at residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental customers.

Value Proposition

Dominion offers three primary value propositions: convenience, innovation, and brand/status.

The company offers convenience by making life simpler for customers. It enables customers to sign up for text message alerts so they can receive important updates for their service area. Updates include information on events such as multi-day outages and major storms.

The company has embraced innovation throughout its history. Its groundbreaking firsts include:

• The first underground residential distribution system
• The first extra-high-voltage system

• The first 500,000-volt transmission system in the U.S. The company reduces risk by maintaining high quality and safety standards:

• It emits less carbon per unit of energy than most of the country’s top 100 electric utilities. Since 2000, it has added approximately 2,800 megawatts of non-emitting generation and about 5,000 megawatts of lower emitting natural gas-fired generation to its generation mix.
• It has converted or retired 12 older, more carbon-intense coal units.  By 2015 more than 2400 megawatts of coal-fired generation were retired or converted to alternative fuels.
• Its balanced mix of resources, including hydro, carbon-free nuclear, solar and wind, natural gas, and biomass coal and oil enables the company to have electric rates that are 22 percent below the East Coast average, 16 percent below the national average, and eight percent below the Virginia average.
• Approximately 33% of its on-road fleet, which includes 6,000 cars and trucks, is composed of alternative vehicle technologies.
• Over 800 vehicles in its fleet are powered by B20 biodiesel fuel, and 230 run on compressed natural gas (CNG).

• Its electric fleet runs off of a lithium ion battery pack, with a range of 40 to 100 miles per charge; this enables annual fuel savings in excess of $900 per vehicle. The company has established a strong brand due to its success. It is one of the largest producers and transporters of energy in the U.S., with a portfolio of 26,000 megawatts of generation; 14,400 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline; and 6,500 miles of electric transmission lines. It also operates one of the largest natural gas storage systems, with 1 trillion cubic feet of storage capacity, and serves over six million retail energy and utility customers. Lastly, it has won many honors, including the following:

• Recognition as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune for 10 years in a row, including placement at #1 among gas and electric utilities
• Ranking as one of America’s Best Employers by Forbes in 2015 (#1 among utilities)
• Selection as the Utility of the Year by Electric Light & Power Magazine (2014) ### Channels

Dominion’s main channel is its direct sales team. The company promotes its offering through its website, social media pages, and print/television/online advertising.

Customer Relationships

Dominion’s customer relationship is primarily of an automated nature. Customers utilize the service while having limited interaction with employees.

Key Activities

Dominion’s business model entails generating and transporting its energy products for customers.

Key Partners

Dominion’s key partners are the suppliers that provide it with the equipment and materials it needs to run its operations. The company purchases boilers, turbines, generators, compressors, and fuel from these companies.

Key Resources

Dominion’s main resources are its physical resources, which include the plants it maintains for the production of its energy resources, as well as associated equipment. It also depends on human resources in the form of contractors that engage in energy generation and delivery.

Cost Structure

Dominion has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is cost of fuel and other energy-related purchases. Other major drivers are in the areas of electric capacity costs and operations/maintenance costs.

Revenue Streams

Dominion has one revenue stream:  revenues it generates from the sale of its energy products to its customers.